Head to Head
by Purple Chickie
Summary: Felicity Smoak is one of the best in the business, genius and hacker extraordinaire. When she runs into another hacker that can go head to head with her behind a computer, she becomes determined to find out who this mysterious adversary is before it becomes trouble for her and Team Arrow. Crossover with members of the Bat Family, but no TV show exists close to the CW shows
1. Chapter 1

**AN** – This is my first fan fiction for _Arrow_. It's going to be a crossover with members of the Batman family, but its not listed as such because there is no current TV show, or a past one, of Batman that is as close to both the comics and _Arrow_ itself as it would be if there was a show on the CW, therefore there are no referents that can be used. I hope everyone enjoys, and please feel free to review. I can really use the feedback!

 _ **Arrow: Head to Head**_

 **Chapter 1**

The figure in dark green moved through the shadows as if he belonged to them, making his way towards the lights ahead. On silent feet, he entered the lit room, surrounded by computer equipment, glass cases, a couple of tables, and other odds and ends necessary for maintaining the arsenal of Green Arrow and his compatriots.

At a table, containing three full computers, with more on the sides of the room nearby, was a slender woman with long blonde hair. As he reached up and pushed back the green hood, and removed the mask, Oliver Queen knew that Felicity Smoak was hard at work, going over facial recognition software results, searching details, and otherwise tracking at least two people that Team Arrow were dealing with at that moment.

The blonde didn't seem to hear the footsteps as he came in, being almost completely silent. But before he got close enough to touch her, she spoke aloud, "I take it you had no luck tracking down Slade?" She was speaking of Deathstroke, the Terminator, a notorious and ruthless assassin who had given Oliver quite a bit of trouble in the past, and had been stranded on Lian Yu, the remote deserted island off the coast of China, several years ago.

Slade Wilson, or Deathstroke as Felicity preferred to think of him as, had been subjected to injections of an enhancement drug called Mirakuru, under the rather villainous direction of Dr. Anthony Ivo, somewhat of a crackpot mad scientist, in Felicity's opinion. The drug had enhanced Slade all right enough. It made him several times stronger than the average human being, increased his ability to withstand pain and damage, his stamina, and reflexes to a much greater degree.

It also did something to accelerate the process of information relaying back and forth from the brain to body and back. As a result, he had earned the name Deathstroke, the Terminator and then some, she thought. _Though it also made him mentally unstable, and very reckless and vengeful_ ran through her mind, as her concentration returned to the screens before her for a moment.

Oliver's face was a study of aggravation and irritation. His jaw was set tight, and his eyes were narrowed, a sure sign of his agitation. "No," he replied. "It's as if he just vanished. There's no record of him leaving the country, or even the city. His face isn't on a single inch of security footage. He hasn't shown up in any bulletin reports, despite there being an APB on him as a priority target for takedown. Not a single damned lead of _any_ kind." He moved as if to slam the bow stand and the arrow crafting station off the table, but seemed to catch himself before he did.

Felicity's brows drew together over the rims of her glasses, and she shook her head. "But Oliver," she said, her voice carrying out the sound of his name a little longer than normal. "That doesn't make any sense. Even with a private jet, or car, or even boat, he'd have to show up _somewhere_. There's a manhunt like you wouldn't believe out for him. _Someone_ would have seen him _somewhere._ " Former Captain Lance had requested a friend of his still within the department put out the APB on Slade the second Felicity had called him, once they learned that he had escaped Oliver's secret prison on Lian Yu, and was back in Star City, hell bent on destroying it.

Oliver heard her, and nodded in agreement, but was looking at the arrows on the crafting station curiously. His brows knit together and he looked over at her. "Where did these come from?" he asked, nodding towards the rather impressive looking arrows. "I know _I_ didn't make them." He was inspecting one, having taken it down off the rack, and turning it over in his hands.

Felicity allowed herself a brief smile, and wagged a finger at him from side to side, and turned back to her computer, looking over her shoulder the whole way. "Those are an early Christmas present, courtesy of Cisco Ramon, esquire, late of Central City," she answered, the brief moment of humor more in her comfort zone. She often called upon her wit, and sometimes her sarcasm to go along with it, to get her through the harder moments.

"Ah, yes. Cisco," answered Oliver finally, nodding slowly. Cisco Ramon was an engineer at the STAR Labs facility in Central City, and a member of Team Flash, as Felicity called them. Of course, she also called Oliver, herself, John Diggle, and Oliver's little sister Thea Team Arrow, much to Oliver's chagrin.

Cisco was a young man, quite brilliant and innovative, and also a definite product of his age group. Just as Felicity had an odd habit of coining names for his team and Barry Allen, the Flash's, team, Team Arrow and Team Flash, respectively, and for dubbing the bunker "The Arrow Cave," Cisco had an odd habit of giving superpowered metahuman criminals colorful code names, very often with a flair for the dramatic.

 _Very odd birds, indeed,_ thought Oliver as Felicity started tapping keys on her keyboard again, her fingers moving rapidly over the lettered buttons. _But I wouldn't have either of them any other way. They're both very cool in their nerdiness, and it's come in handy far more than a couple of times. Besides, how could Felicity not be adorable? My life is nothing without her._

Though they were officially broke up from their engagement, Oliver and Felicity had remained on friendly terms, and the love between them seemed to be rekindling itself. Not as fast as Oliver hoped, probably, but it was improving, even he had to admit. As long as she was near, he was complete. It was all he knew, and more, it's all he _wanted_ to know.

"There's more," continued Felicity, without even sounding distracted. Many times Oliver had noticed she was exceptional at multitasking, and this was no exception. "Cisco also put together a new bow for you. It's a special alloy, very flexible, very strong, and, according to him, extremely smooth and accurate in its action. It collapses much like the one you have now, and is compound. You can also use it as a wedge, or a lever, its got the strength."

She finally turned and nodded towards the table, where a rather slim box was sitting, the length of it perhaps a foot long. "It's in there. The string is wound with the same composite alloy. He's very confident that it will be much more resilient than even the special bow strings you use, while also having a very smooth action."

Oliver opened the box, and withdrew what looked mostly like a bow grip. There were a couple of small, well shielded studs that must be buttons, he figured. Tapping the first, the bow rapidly unfurled from within the grip, the metal almost looking as if it swelled and grew as it reached its full length, a very intimidating looking compound bow. It also automatically strung itself, like the one he used now, which was a definite plus. The weight was indeed very light, which would allow for more fluid motions when firing it. _I could get spoiled to this,_ he thought.

Upon inspection of the string, he could tell it was a very strong tensile cord, interweaved with a metal that resembled the alloy of the bow itself. He curled his fingers about it, and pulled back, testing the draw. It required strength, as it should, but it was an extremely smooth, fluid action it had. Cisco had outdone himself on this beauty. Despite himself, he had a light smile on his lips, nearly invisible to most, but Felicity could spot it a mile away.

With a half grin of her own, she stopped what she was doing long enough to turn around as Oliver released the draw, and set the bow down. "Does it meet your approval?" she asked, not in the least sarcastic. She knew that, like herself, Cisco could sometimes annoy Oliver, even though he genuinely liked the young engineer.

"Are you kidding?" countered Oliver, the half smile still a ghost on his lips. "That's an impressive piece of engineering and bow design. I have to hand it to him, Cisco is a genius. I'm stunned," he finished, looking at the bow once more. He couldn't have designed a better bow by any means. _I probably couldn't have designed one even half that good. Whatever little annoyances Cisco has, he makes up for it, and then some, with his brilliance._

Felicity smiled fully now, her blue eyes sparkling, though with what, Oliver couldn't be sure. "He'll be glad to know that. He figured it might make up for that little snafu he had the last time he was here," she said, watching him a moment longer. "He really admires you, you know. I know he's exuberant, and bubbly, and kind of silly, but he really does just want to help, and make a difference."

Oliver's face flushed a bit when she said the part about the admiring, but he took the compliment gracefully. "He's young, well, younger than me, anyway. He reminds me a bit of you. A brilliant genius, with a mind capable of much more than I can comprehend, let alone follow half the time, and I'm not a dumb guy at all," he said, moving out from the table and closer to her. He wasn't being arrogant, he simply knew he was a reasonably intelligent man. "Barry depends on him, and Caitlin, just like I depend on you, John and Thea. If it weren't for you, I might have found myself in a very different place today. Never think for a single instant that I don't appreciate each and every skill and thing you bring to the table, your absolute genius, just like I appreciate and value Cisco's brilliance. I also admire both of you greatly. Far more than I let on, I'm sure."

Felicity felt her face flush red for a moment. It wasn't often that Oliver opened up like this, let people see what was under the surface. He'd gotten much better at it since they'd come back from Ivy Town, but during that time she'd learned even more than she already had how to read him after that. It was good to see him opening up, even a little. He was normally so stormy with what he was feeling.

"Oliver…I don't know what to say," she said, feeling as if she were floundering. Despite her anger, her conflicted feelings, everything bad that happened that led to her breaking off their engagement, she could never suppress the surges of love she felt for him, especially in special moments like this. She knew she still loved him, and he loved her, but they had to work some things out before they could fully return to what they had.

He stepped closer to her, and his hand came up, hesitantly, to brush over her cheek. His eyes moved over her face, finally settling on her eyes. "You don't have to say _anything_ , Felicity. Just know it's the truth, and that I know it's true," he finally spoke, his voice soft, almost a whisper. She hadn't heard him speak like that since before she broke the engagement. She felt all melted and gooey inside.

As she opened her mouth to speak, an alarm sounded on her computer, and the screen started flashing. Instantly whirling back around, she sat down and began rapidly typing, so fast Oliver couldn't distinguish one finger from the other. "Goddamnit!" she growled at no one in particular, and started typing even more furiously. The images on the screen flashed by faster than he could follow.

After several moments of watching her, and listening to her growl, he leaned over her, his hands on the table. "What's going on?" he asked. She knew that while he understood user principles with a computer pretty well, his was way out of his league with what she was doing. He knew she was inside some system or other, but beyond that, he didn't have much a clue. All the lines of code and computer speak just made his eyes cross.

The irritation in her voice was palpable, almost a living thing. She continued to growl several more times before shoving the keyboard towards the monitor and putting her hands on her head, a sure sign she was frustrated. When she was temporarily stymied, this was how she'd get. Oliver knew it was best to be calm and help her ride it out.

"The little son of a bitch," she growled again, looking like she was going to hit the table in anger. "And someone else is riding the trail too, and trying to shove me aside. Apparently, whoever it is has pissed off several people."

"Who are you talking about?" Oliver asked, feeling more confused by the second. His face was a study of concern, and his eyes sought hers out, needing to find out what had her so upset. Whatever was going on, he hadn't seen her this angry since she found out he hadn't told her about William, his son.

Taking a deep breath, she figured it was best to start at the beginning, because she knew if she didn't, it'd be a million questions. "I'd opened up backdoors to most law enforcement agencies, hoping to maybe get a hit on Slade, or at least his description, or something in a report. It turns out something did come up, but someone else was tracking the systems, and started systematically erasing all information concerning anything to do with Slade specifically," she explained, her eyes looking wetter than normal. "Then when I try to shut him down, whoever it is, someone else enters the system. Apparently, they've been tracking whoever this hacker is too, and they basically shut me out. I gave them a fight, but they're good, _damned_ good."

Oliver frowned, and he fixed her with an odd look. "Are you saying someone managed to push _you_ out of a system? There can't be more than a couple of people who'd be capable of something like that, not for very long, anyway," he said. He wasn't just paying lip service. Felicity was one of the most gifted hackers he'd ever seen or heard of. And Overwatch, as was her code name, had earned quite a reputation on the cyber circuit, rivaling that of Oracle, in Gotham City.

Her angry face was suddenly replaced by a reassured smirk as she tapped a few keys, and big block of code showed up on the screen. "Ha, you bastard. You can sneak and snoop, but you can't hide," she said finally, looking up at Oliver. When he didn't say anything immediately, she figured out he had no idea of what he was looking at.

Seeing a total lack of comprehension on his face, she continued, "What you're looking at is a data packet trace. Though he's spoofing all over the place, and rerouted his signal a thousand times with ghost terminals, false responses and the like, that's his digital signature. It's that guy that's been causing all sorts of trouble with big sites and institutions like banks, defense computers, etc. He calls himself Freejack. At least now we know who we're looking for."

"What about this other person, this other hacker?" Oliver asked. If it was someone that could truly shove Felicity out of a system, that could very well spell a lot of trouble for them. Felicity was amazing with computers, almost amazing enough to _be_ a computer. If this person could out hack her, that would definitely be trouble.

Felicity's brows drew together in a frown. "I don't know," she said finally. "But you can bet I'm going to find out. I can't grab their data packet in a trace, their digital signature or anything else. Whoever it is has got a _major_ setup, more powerful than what we've got here, and we've got a really hardcore, kick ass network." She went back to staring at the code streams, trying to find something she might have missed the first time. "And when I find out, somebody's going to learn what hacking's all about."

X

The room was dark, except for the lights of multiple monitors all around the room. Their bluish digital glow illuminated feminine hands coming away from a keyboard, and in the darkness, the monitor light reflected off glasses.

The woman at the computers leaned back in her seat and toyed with a curl of red hair that had fallen over her shoulder and stared at the screen. Her mind was awash with many thoughts, and she had come across something that surprised her greatly.

Tapping a key on her computer, she was greeted with a bright tone, and she leaned forward on her elbows. "Dick," she said in a quiet voice. "I found Freejack. He's been erasing data concerning Deathstroke all over the place." Her voice seemed to trail off, and there was a moment of silence.

The voice on the other end of the line, masculine, answered, "That's good. I'm assuming you managed to stop him, or at least chase him out of the system?" asked the voice named Dick.

The woman thought for a long moment, and then rested her chin in her hand. "Yeah, I managed to chase him out, but I think I had help. And whoever it is, Dick, they're _damned_ good. I can't get anything on their signal, and I just barely managed to shut them out before they did the same thing to me. If I have to go head to head with them again, I might have a problem. A big one." The woman sounded pensive, and had just a touch of aggravation in her voice.

The person named Dick seemed to be considering what the woman had just said, and it took a while before he finally spoke. "Babs," he said slowly. "If this person can come that close to matching you keystroke for keystroke, that's going to be a _huge_ problem. You're the best hacker anyone, including Bruce, has ever seen. It's a very scary thought that there might be someone else out there as good as you are."

Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, also known as Oracle, leaned back in her chair and stared at the screen and the failed attempt to retrieve a data packet on the mysterious hacker. For the first time in a long time, her spine tingled with the apprehension that was known to keep animals alive when dangerous predators were around. That worried her even more than she was already.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN** – Sorry it's taken so long for an update. My health keeps me down a lot of the time, but I write whenever I can. Hopefully the wait will be worth it! And by all means, please let me know what you think, good or bad, if its great or it sucks. The more you tell me what you like or what you don't like, the better I can write!

 **Chapter 2**

"Are you sure he's actually here?" asked a feminine voice, with a slight rasp to it. The voice sounded young, and even a little impatient. The woman was dressed in dark red leather, with a hood over her head and masked face, and the bow she held was a very sophisticated piece of archery design, like that of her older brother's bow. "I don't see anything, except for debris, dust, and the occasional rat."

The woman in red was on a rooftop across the street, carefully watching the windows and door of the south facing side of a moderately tall building, near the Glades, in a rundown part of the neighborhood, which, for the Glades, that was saying something. The Glades itself was old, run down and in poor repair. This place made the rest of the Glades look like a palace. Her breath was coming in short, exasperated sounds, becoming frustrated. Her whole body itched for action, to do something besides sitting, waiting and watching.

 _At least the damned bloodlust isn't as bad anymore,_ thought the woman, shuddering at the memory of things she'd felt and done since her resurrection in the Lazarus Pit a year or so ago. She still didn't feel right, but it was getting better. When she'd first been resurrected, the Lazarus Pit had exacted a price for it's revival of the young woman. Because it had given her back her life when she was nearly dead, it instilled in her a savage, primal instinct, a bloodlust, to kill. _Blood for blood, I guess. Ra's Al Ghul could have mentioned that to Ollie when he took me there. At least he got what he deserved, though "Dear Old Dad" taking his place wasn't any better. At least Nyssa is the head of the League of Assassins now. Anybody is better than Malcolm Merlyn._

Felicity tapped keys rapidly on the keyboard, her eyes on the screen. The images on the screen changed rapidly as she input text into the command prompt boxes with lightning speed, the footage she was clicking through flickering across her face. The glare on her glasses obscured her eyes from any that might have been looking directly at her, but there was no one there. Team Arrow was in the field, and Overwatch was on the job, doing exactly that, keeping watch on her team, and directing them towards their objectives with surgical precision.

"Yes, I'm sure he's actually there, Speedy," replied Felicity, using Thea Queen's codename over the channel in case it were being monitored. It was a nickname that her older brother, Oliver, had called her since she was a young child. It seemed to fit, so it stuck even as a codename. "He's been ghosting his IP all over the state, masking it, obscuring it, and anything else he could think of, including bouncing it off Defense Department secret satellites, but he wasn't planning on dealing with _us_. I know _exactly_ where he is."

As Felicity tapped more keys, her voice sharpened and heightened a little as the microphone at the right side of her mouth picked up her voice. There was a ring of triumph in it as she confirmed her ping. "He's on the ninth floor, back west side corner, in the office where the data junction is, and the emergency evacuation route, according to the blueprints. Green Arrow, Spartan, Speedy, Can—" she cut herself off before she could finish Laurel's codename. Mentally, she smacked herself for her slip. She'd been doing so good, and now…now Laurel Lance, Assistant District Attorney for Star City, and secretly the Black Canary, was gone, dead at the hands of Damien Dahrk. Each time she was mentioned, it was a stab in the heart for the entire team.

"Overwatch, its five by five," cut in the deeper voice of Spartan, as he drew his weapon, and proceeded along his prescribed path with military precision and awareness. "I'm on my way, cutting in from position three," he continued. In military jargon, John Diggle, the man under the helmet of Spartan, had told her that it was okay, her slip wasn't something anyone was blaming her for. Laurel had been a member of the team for a very long time. Her absence was felt by one and all, but they all knew what she'd say if she were still there. Star City still needed Team Arrow, and the team had to hold it together, no matter how painful it might be sometimes.

Thea's eyes narrowed as she watched the building from her position. She saw Spartan traverse the window to her immediate right, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement from the left, moving towards him. "Spartan," she hissed urgently into the com line. "You've got a bogey, on your nine!" As quick as her namesake, Thea pulled an arrow from her quiver, nocked it, and drew back with a deep breath, just fractions of a second from letting it fly.

At that moment, the man stalking silently towards Spartan came into her field of vision, and without a moment's hesitation, she let the arrow fly. The soft _swish_ of the arrow through the air was all but silent, and the sound of it as it made contact with the target was a soft _thunk_. The sedative in the special tip of the arrow pumped into the man's bloodstream, and he went down like a sack of potatoes, still and silent.

"Thanks, Speedy," murmured Spartan as he continued along his path. Now, knowing for a fact there were others here, besides just their hacker "friend," he was more alert now, and making even more of an effort to be as silent as possible and taking full advantage of corners and cover, even more so than he already had been. Keeping his back covered by keeping close to walls, he moved along the many hallways in the building, listening intently for signs of others nearby.

"Don't mention it," Thea replied quietly. She kept up her vigil, itching to come inside and join the action up close, but Oliver had wanted her watching, and acting as a sniper. Her eyesight was extremely sharp and she had impressive reflexes, things that Oliver valued highly in his little sister. It didn't make it any easier for her to stand on the sidelines and watch, though.

X

In the Bunker, Felicity was rapidly keying in information, code, and traces, her fingers little more than a blur on the keyboards. Her team was in the field, her adrenaline was high, and she was on a heightened awareness when that was the situation. She was hyper aware, and reacted like lightning to ever changing events. While her teammates were physically stalking, and getting closer to Freejack, she was systematically trying to shut his operation down on the cyber level.

Her mind was in automatic pilot, seeing the changes in the situation, and adapting coding on the fly to deal with the situation, without even thinking. It was as natural to Felicity as breathing, and that was one of the things that Oliver and the team admired greatly about her, but also one of the things that made her kind of scary, in a funny sort of way. Felicity's mind was like a huge, powerful, complex, quirky, insightful and brilliant living computer, with all the emotions and heart of a passionate human being, all rolled into one pretty package. On the whole, it made Felicity Smoak a pretty unique, and formidable, personality, intellectually, and emotionally.

Every move Freejack made, Felicity was right there to shut him down, force him back, or cause him to rethink his strategy. The bad thing was that, even Felicity had to admit, he was good, very good. She actually had to work at shutting him down, and trying to force him out. If she didn't know better, she'd think he was her father, Noah Kuttler, who had the codename on the criminal circuit of the Calculator, because he was quite brilliant. Freejack displayed a lot of her father's innovative and intuitive approach to hacking, but there was also a method to it that was all his own. That added an unknown quantifier to the cyber combat, a pretty large one.

In the middle of typing a code sequence to force Freejack into a system that was a dead end, another intruder started closing in on both her and Freejack. From the code flying across her screen, Felicity could tell it looked like the unknown hacker had the same agenda she did, to get rid of Freejack, and quickly. While still concentrating on trying to force Freejack into the dead end, she tapped keys on the keyboard next to her, and set up a back ping on the second signal. She may not know who it was, or where they were, but their own signal would act like a piggy back carrier that they could pick up what she'd be sending.

Clearing her throat, she readied herself. The signal was established, the carrier was strong, and she set the voice distortion software into motion, not to mention the preprogrammed image the other hacker would be receiving. Making sure her microphone was tied in to the voice distortion software, she spoke, "I don't know who you are, or what you're planning, but you're getting in way over your head. You're in my territory, on my turf, and if you don't want to be shut down, I suggest you withdraw right now. Otherwise, we'll see just how good you are."

Felicity felt her palms sweating as she continued to work at Freejack, limiting his options with every keystroke. Unfortunately, whoever the other hacker was didn't seem to be getting the hint. She blinked as a preprogrammed image came up on her screen, along with a voice that was obviously distorted like hers was.

"I don't know who you are, and at the moment, I don't care. The hacker you're chasing is a very, very dangerous criminal, cyber and otherwise. I may be in your territory, but the entire Internet is my territory. I can leave you alone, or make your life very miserable, the choice is yours. But you seem to have the same idea in mind that I do, namely forcing the invader into a dead end, and forcing him to log off. I can't allow him to keep doing what he's doing, for the safety of Star City, and for the safety of everywhere else if he's not stopped right now," the voice coming from the other hacker said, with what Felicity thought was a bit of melodrama tossed in for good measure, obviously trying to sound intimidating.

There was a pause as Felicity kept dead ending Freejack, forcing him to retreat in the direction she wanted him to go. Chewing her bottom lip a second, she decided to take a chance. "If we have the same goal, then why not work together, and do this twice as fast, and twice as effectively? What do you have to lose? Instead of harassing each other, we should be shutting him down. I know he's got a connection to Deathstroke, the Terminator, and that he's systematically erasing information on him and his whereabouts all over the world. Together, we can be positive he won't get any further," she tried to reason with the other hacker, trying to appeal to the sense of good she got just from listening to them, even if they did try to sound intimidating. Felicity Smoak may not be very confrontational face to face, but put her behind a computer, and all bets were off. She could flex with the best of them.

The period of silence following her proposition felt like an eternity.

X

Barbara Gordon stared at the screen of her very powerful and elaborate laptop. She'd designed and built it herself, making it one of the most powerful and advanced laptops ever built. The hotel room was silent around her, except for the hum of the laptop, and the WiFi enhancers she'd also built, to not only boost the signal of the crappy hotel WiFi, but that also helped mask her signal and location.

Outside the windows, the sounds of Star City were greatly muffled. She and Dick had come all the way across the country to Star City, because she'd traced all Freejack's activity to the city. If they were going to stop him, they had to catch him, and they couldn't catch him from Gotham City, if he was all the way across the country in Star City. Apparently, Star City's local costumed vigilantes, Green Arrow and his team, were unaware of Freejack's activities, which made it even more imperative to stop him before he completely eradicated every reference of Slade Wilson's whereabouts and activities, which would make him very difficult to find.

The preprogrammed image on her screen had just finished speaking, and Barbara couldn't refute the sense and logic of the proposal. She was so used to doing things on her own, she often disregarded help, because she had come to rely on herself, rather than cooperation more often than not. Accepting help was not something she did well.

The silence lingered for a long moment, and then finally, she keyed the microphone back on. "You're right. I'm just used to doing things like this on my own. Help will actually be…welcome," she finally said, watching the image with interest, while also monitoring Freejack's progress, and keying in algorithms to force him into her compatriot's cut off, and cutting him off when they did the same.

"I like to know who I'm working with, though," she continued, her eyes reading the code at lightning fast speed. "What do they call you?" She was genuinely surprised by the skill she was seeing come across her laptop screen that her unknown partner was executing, but it was very much like they were on the same level, the same page, almost like a mirror. She was impressed, very impressed.

There was the distorted sound of rapid fire typing on the other end, and from just the sound, Barbara knew without a doubt that this person was like her, a person so connected to their computer system, you could believe rather easily that they were a part of their computer. There was no hesitation at all, it was all continuous and you could tell the other hacker was changing and adapting on the fly, without missing a keystroke.

The voice hesitated a bit, and finally, the voice came through the speakers. "Overwatch," replied the other hacker, still typing rapidly. The preprogrammed image shimmered a bit on the screen.

Barbara smiled slowly. Now, it all made sense. On the internet, you can learn almost anything if you know where to look. Over the past few years, there had been a buzz about another vigilante hacker that worked the net like a maestro before a symphony. "I'm pleased to meet you, Overwatch," she replied after a moment. "I'm Oracle."

There was a distorted sound that sounded a lot like a sharply indrawn breath. Barbara's brows furrowed in confusion for a moment, but when there was a soft, almost inaudible laughter coming across the speakers. The coding being used on the other end suddenly went to a whole new level, and Barbara heard, "Oh, you are _so_ dead, Freejack."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"GA, get down!" yelled Spartan across the room, as an armed man behind the Green Arrow was taking advantage of the hand to hand fight he was having with another one of Freejack's "friends." As soon as Oliver ducked and rolled, Spartan fired three quick shots at the man, a hit to each shoulder, and one in the hand as he tried to fire back at the man in the helmet across the room, causing his own gun to go flying.

The man dropped to the floor as Green Arrow rose to his feet, sweeping the feet out from under the man he'd been fighting, sending him dropping hard towards the floor on his back, and then slammed the bow across the man's jaw, knocking him out cold. As Spartan zip tied the two unconscious men's hands behind their backs, Green Arrow moved to a short corner, and glanced first one way into the hallway beyond, and then the other.

Oliver's voice was light and raspy as he keyed his earpiece, "Overwatch, what's the situation? Are you able to commence shut down and shut out?" He moved stealthily into the hallway, making his way to where Felicity had said Freejack was operating. There was the distinct sound of keyboard keys clacking as he neared the room at the end of the hall.

Oliver, John, and Thea could all hear the rapid fire typing Felicity was doing over the com unit. "The situation is green, Green Arrow. Wow, that's a double color flip in one—" The rising pitch of Felicity's voice indicated that she was growing excited, and that usually meant that she became excited enough to start rambling a little.

As much as Oliver adored her, he cut her off rapidly in mid gush, "Overwatch, focus on the task at hand. Is Freejack out of the system or not?" He could hear indistinct ranting coming from the room ahead, as well as several cases and such being slammed closed a little too enthusiastically for the job to be going well, he thought.

As Spartan made his way to the emergency exit near the data junction in the room, Felicity drew a deep breath before coming over the line again, the sounds of her fingers dancing across the keyboard loud and strong. "Freejack has been ejected. He should be preparing to book ass as we speak. Surely he knows you're onto him, so he's probably got more stooges in the building converging on your position. I'll try and override some of the emergency systems in the building."

Before the echo of her words faded from Team Arrow's ears, the sprinkler system came to life, drenching everything on every floor in the building in a fire suppression flood. There was loud and animated shouting coming from the room, followed immediately by a crash. It sounded like someone had slipped on the slick floor, and fallen, not to mention something clattering across the floor, it seemed.

Oliver stepped around the corner just in time to see Freejack scramble to his feet. On the far side of the room, Spartan was coming through the door, gun aimed at the hacker attempting to flee. Just as the large man came through the door, Freejack launched himself at the vigilante, striking him in the groin with his shoulder, which caused Spartan to crumple to the ground in pain. The force of contact between the hacker's shoulder and his most sensitive spot had him writing on the floor, eyes glazed over with spots from the shock of the sudden pain. His gun was still in his hand, however.

Freejack stumbled over Spartan's writhing body, and darted through the emergency exit, laptop under his arm, and the sounds of feet on a fire escape were distinctly heard. Green Arrow didn't hesitate a moment. He immediately went to assist his partner, and check to make sure he wasn't seriously injured, even though Freejack was getting away. "Goddamnit," he muttered to himself as he helped Spartan sit up. His frustration wasn't with Spartan, but with Freejack's dumb luck on taking the much bigger man down completely by accident, or desperation.

X

Thea could hear the commotion going on in the building, and see the flashing fire lights, as well as water spraying all over the place from the windows that she could see through. She knew that meant Felicity had probably triggered the emergency systems in the building to disrupt Freejack's activities and slow him down, but she caught movement on the fire escape out of the corner of her eye.

The dark red clad heroine rushed to the side of the roof she was on and took a quick look to see what was going on. Even as she looked, she was already drawing and nocking an arrow. "Oh, no you don't," she muttered under her breath. "Not tonight, you don't." She waited a moment, letting Freejack get closer to the ground. Since Oliver and John hadn't come bursting out the door pursuing him, she could only figure he'd managed to slow them down instead.

Once Freejack was halfway down the last ladder leading to the ground, she let the arrow fly, which cut a whistling path through the air. When it was only a few feet from the fleeing hacker, the proximity armed concussion tip on the arrow detonated, sending a strong, forceful blast that knocked the man from the ladder, falling until he landed on his back on the hood of a car that had been parked in the alley. His body hit it with a satisfying smacking and thud sound.

While he was still in the act of falling, Speedy had nocked and fired a second arrow, this one with a cable attached to it, and immediately secured it and slid down its length rapidly using her bow as the fulcrum she used to make her way down. Her feet touched pavement just a split second after the hacker had landed on the car.

The young vigilante whirled towards the hacker, who was getting up, obviously in pretty great pain, and tried to bolt when he saw the hooded figure whirling towards him. The girl's right foot came up high, at head level, and connected solidly on the side of the hacker's face and head. The force of the roundhouse kick was so powerful, it sent the slender hacker for a flip, landing on the pavement on his back, unconscious.

Coming to a ready position, Speedy saw that Freejack was down and out. Above her, Green Arrow and Spartan were coming rapidly down the fire escape. With a satisfied smirk as her older brother, and their friend, hit the ground near her, she nudged the hacker with her foot. "Sit down and shut up, punk."

As Speedy continued to smirk in a very prideful way, Green Arrow and Spartan looked at each other in silence for several moments, then to the red clad girl, and back at each other. Spartan shrugged his shoulders, and chuckled, "Hey, man, she's _your_ sister."

X

"You want to tell me again why we're here, exactly?" asked the young man with long, shoulder length hair, dark as the night, as he regarded Barbara Gordon in the front seat of the car. They were parked in the VIP lot directly across from the entrance to Palmer Technologies, and the offices being built next door for the newly re-emerged Queen Consolidated offices.

Dick Grayson knew, from his associations with his mentor Bruce Wayne's associations, not to mention his own connections through the vast company he owned, Grayson Enterprises, that Palmer Tech, under the ownership of Felicity Smoak, was responsible for a lot of cutting edge technology, put together by the genius of the researchers the young woman had on the payroll, but he hadn't quite figured out what Barbara's plan was.

Barbara gave him a very faint smile, and let the silence linger for a moment. Finally, she glanced at the building, and back to him, speaking quietly, "Freejack is systematically purging all information regarding Slade Wilson and his alter ego, Deathstroke, from computer systems all over the world."

Dick knew that much, but there was certainly more to it than that. Dick was a gifted computer sciences person, and a decent hacker, but he knew he was nowhere near Barbara's level of expertise. He contented himself by looking at her, and allowing her to continue without interruption.

Seeing that she wasn't going to be interrupted, she allowed her lips to form the ghost of a smile, and she continued, "Palmer Tech has a revolutionary piece of software in development that can find, reconstruct, and read any data erased from a hard drive by any method, without forcing you to take up space on the hard drive in question. You can save it to any medium capable of storing it. It revolutionizes the data recovery solutions, but it can also be very dangerous in the wrong hands, say if someone wanted to find deleted top secret files on the Pentagon systems, for example." She waited a heartbeat before finishing, allowing that to sink in. "And more, it leaves no direct trace. You can find that the deleted information has been accessed, but by the time anyone would think to check, or stumble onto it, the damage would have been done for quite some time. The fact that the information had been accessed wouldn't be readily apparent, and definitely not obvious. You'd have to be actively looking for that sort of activity."

Dick whistled long and low, shaking his head, meeting her eyes with a new depth of concern. "That could be potentially disastrous, to put it very mildly," he said finally. His expression solidified a bit more as he followed up, "But it doesn't explain why you need _me_ here. Besides actually getting into wherever they've got this thing, and getting out, I mean."

Barbara turned more towards him, and peered at him through her thin framed glasses. A wry smile came to her lips as she covered his hand with hers. "I need you here because, first, it wouldn't make any sense for Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon, to come all the way from the East Coast to the West Coast to 'take a look around' Palmer Tech by herself. But Richard Grayson, CEO of Grayson Enterprises, could conceivably be here for any number of reasons, mostly business related, and we often travel together, so no one would think anything of it," she said with an amused tone.

"Secondly," she continued, that same amused tone coloring her voice, her eyes found his again. "While you can handle the physicality of actually getting into the lab undetected, borrowing the software, and getting out undetected, you'll need me to break through the layers of sophisticated security they have on the labs where the software is being developed."

A mischievous smile crossed her lips, a very large step up from the amused one she'd just been exercising, and she finished, "Thirdly, you love me, and you wouldn't let me try to break through a very sophisticated security system, try to get this wheelchair into the lab, copy the software, and then get this damned thing out of the lab, would you?" She teased a fingertip along the line of his bottom lip, poked out her own, and batted her eyes playfully in a lost puppy dog look.

The young man groaned softly at the teasing touch, and the words she said, then chuckled softly. His lips lightly brushed hers in a soft kiss, and he said, "Yes, of course I love you, and no, I wouldn't let you try all that yourself. Okay, you talked me into it. It's a good thing for you I'm kind of well known for showing up at places like this at odd hours and stuff. Otherwise, we'd be answering a lot of questions."

It took several minutes to get her wheelchair out of the car, set it up, and then lift her out of the car and into the much hated device. Once she was comfortable and secure, he wheeled her with him into the lobby, and the security desk, of Palmer Technologies.

As they entered, the guard looked up from what was undoubtedly a small TV, and frowned slightly. It was, after all, late evening, and there was rarely any business conducted with the company at this hour. "May I help you, sir, ma'am?" he asked, looking back and forth between the well dressed couple.

Barbara wheeled up beside him as Dick casually leaned on the high desk with an elbow, looking every inch the part of the rich philanthropist businessman, who was very accustomed to having his odd quirks patronized. "Why, yes, I believe you can. I made arrangements with Miss Smoak's assistant earlier in the month to have a casual sit down meeting with her once I arrived in Star City for some other business I'm tending to. We arrived rather late, thanks to a scheduling conflict, and I didn't want Miss Smoak to think I blew off our meeting. I'm told she's still here. Could you be a good guy, and give her a call for me, and let her know I'm here?"

The guard flicked his eyes between the two, and frowned softly. He picked up a clipboard and began flipping through several sheets of paper, then looked at Dick once more with a mystified expression. "Um, sir, I don't have you listed as being expected, but that happens sometimes. Miss Smoak is known to keep irregular hours. I'll be happy to call up for you. Who should I tell her is here to see her?"

A charming smile came to Dick's lips as he regarded the guard, glancing over at Barbara but an instant, before turning back towards the guard. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess that was kind of rude of me, wasn't it?" he asked, looking at Barbara again. "I'm sorry, darling, I think the long flight has me frazzled."

He glanced back at the guard, and laid the smooth on good this time. "This vision of beauty is my associate, Barbara Gordon. Then, of course, just tell her Dick Grayson is here to see her." His smile grew as the guard returned the smile, if a little nervously, and dialed Felicity's extension.

X

"Yes?" Felicity asked, after the intercom on the phone went off. She always had her extension from her office rerouted to the Bunker whenever she was working down there. It made things a lot easier and far less awkward that way. The team was rounding up all the stooges and Freejack, and gift wrapping them for the SCPD, and so far, things seemed to be going all right.

"Your open appointment you've had for the past few weeks is here, Miss Smoak," said the guard. It was apparent that he wasn't yet acquainted with and accustomed to Felicity's quirkiness, especially with regards to working, and the rather unusual schedule she sometimes kept.

Furrowed brows knotted up Felicity's pretty forehead as she tilted her head in thought. Most that worked there knew she could sometimes be a little preoccupied or absent minded, depending. "I have several of those. Who did you say was here?" She vaguely remembered a short talk with her assistant while she was in a rush to go down to the Bunker a couple of weeks before that, but only half heard most of what she said, just telling her to pencil them in on an open basis.

"A Mr. Dick Grayson, ma'am," the guard replied. He sounded not exactly bored, but not exactly excited either. The man honestly didn't seem to know anything about the person he was announcing so she thought it wasn't anybody of earth shattering importance. Then the name sunk in, and her furrowed browed annoyance turned to jaw dropped shock.

"Dick Grayson?" she practically shouted into the speaker. " _The_ Dick Grayson? As in _Richard_ Grayson? As in Richard Grayson, the CEO of Grayson Enterprises Dick Grayson?" she asked in a flurry of panicked questions. _Of all the people that could come looking for me tonight,_ she thought frantically. _Dick freaking Grayson. Oh my God, I look a mess, and I'm going to babble my ass off, I just know I am. Why tonight, God? He's going to think I'm a fruit loop!_

Though Dick could hear Felicity's rather panicked questions, but just barely, Felicity tried very hard to regain as much of her composure as she could. "Um, okay, er, well, yes. That's fine, that's fine. Tell him…tell Mr. Grayson I'll be down to escort him up personally. Tell him not to go _anywhere._ I'm on my way down," she finally managed to get out, already shutting the intercom off and racing for the door and the elevator.

She stumbled into the elevator, almost breaking a heel as she did, and causing several strands of her hair to come tumbling free from the ponytail she had her hair in. As the doors to the elevator closed, and it started to move, she tried desperately to tuck her hair back into the ponytail holder. _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! Dick Grayson is drop dead gorgeous, smart, sophisticated, and dreamy, and here I'm going to be blushing and babbling like a first grader in front of her first crush! I did the same thing with Oliver! How do I get myself into these situations, anyway?_ tumbled free from her thoughts as the elevator doors opened.

X

Dick and Barbara waited in the lobby, where the guard led them to, and heard the elevator doors open. Moments later, a tall, slender, lovely blonde woman dressed smartly and modernly, came around the corner, her smile seeming almost painted on it was so static. Barbara covered her mouth in amusement, not wanting to make the poor girl feel even worse than she probably already did. Dick had that effect on women, and she never failed to be sympathetically amused by the behavior he inspired in them.

Felicity was smiling so widely and so hard, she thought her face was going to crack and all her teeth were going to fall out. Her eyes locked on Dick's face and form and in a tiny groan of a voice, she half whispered, "Oh, my God, he's _gorgeous_ …" She prayed she didn't stumble and make a bigger fool of herself than she already thought she was doing.

Dick, for his part, was eminently charming, and smiled that smile that made women weak in the knees. Barbara coughed lightly, trying to suppress the soft laugh that threatened to spill from her lips. _Oh, if only you knew just how devastating he can be,_ thought Barbara without a hint of it showing up on her face.

As charming as always, Dick tilted his head to the side, and smiled. "I'm sorry, come again?" he asked, never taking his eyes off the blonde beauty's face. "I didn't catch what you said?" He glanced over at Barbara, who he knew would be wanting to laugh madly right about then.

Felicity felt like she was melting into the floor. It was entirely too hot all of a sudden, and she felt faint, even. She was in love with Oliver, even though they weren't together at the moment, but she couldn't help but get lost in Dick's eyes and smile. At his question, she suddenly jerked herself back to the there and then. "Hmm? Oh! I, uh, I said, 'Oh we're so fortunate,' as in we're fortunate that our schedules both permitted this meeting." She suddenly extended her hand sharply out of nowhere, obviously nervous. "I'm Felicity Smoak, and I'm very pleased to meet you."

Dick was getting ready to answer her when she suddenly looked over at Barbara, who was still trying to maintain her composure. "Oh! I'm so sorry, I had so much on my mind that I didn't see you there. I'm Felicity Smoak and you must be Barbara Gordon?" She knew that they were pretty much inseparable most of the time, having seen them in any number of magazines and on TV many times. Despite the fact that they seemed to be an item, Felicity definitely felt that rush of attraction.

Dick introduced himself personally, shaking her hand, and again smiled that smile that was the bane of many women's composure, though he himself seemed largely unaware of the effect he had on women. It took a long time for Barbara to truly believe Dick was oblivious to the fact that women melted upon meeting him, and seemed to follow him around like puppies if they were allowed to.

Smiling genuinely, she shook Felicity's hand warmly, and nodded. "That would be me, yes. I'm very pleased to meet you as well," she replied, shifting a little in the wheelchair. "Dr. Palmer's, and now your, company is well known for cutting edge research and invention, especially in the areas of electronic and computer centric applications. I know you've made incredible strides in other areas, such as rehabilitative and medical breakthroughs, but I'm sort of a computer nerd. I'm honored to be here."

"Oh, yes, yes we do," Felicity replied, with not a small amount of pride in the company's accomplishments. "In fact, I've heard about your…accident. We have a chip that could very possibly enable you to walk again, and function normally. I have one myself, after a bunch of craziness that landed me in a similar situation." She didn't directly mention the fact that the criminal called the Joker had attacked her in her home, and shot her in the spine, crippling her. It'd been all over the news, nation wide.

"But I understand what you mean. I'm a huge computer nerd myself," she continued after a moment of silence, picking up the tone and the spirits of the conversation. "Let's go up to my office, get everyone some refreshments of some kind, and sit down and talk. Sound good?"

Dick nodded, having let the both of them talk while he checked out various points of interest around the lobby, getting a better idea of what he may be up against once he got to where the labs were.

Barbara smiled, and started wheeling her chair towards the elevator, already planning how to get access to the building's systems so she could disable the security protocols for Dick to grab the software. "It sounds fantastic," she said, entering the elevator with the both of them."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Felicity ushered her guests into her quite spacious office, and gestured towards the comfortable chairs, giving them a smile. "Feel free to sit where you like. I'll have some drinks, or whatever you like brought in. My assistant should still be here," she said, trying to get a hold on her nerves. She was nervous, anxious, excited, so many things all at once, she thought she might explode with all of it going through her.

Dick smiled lightly at her hospitality, and sat down in a very comfortable, overstuffed seat, with plenty of room for Barbara to move next to him. As Felicity called her assistant, Barbara moved her chair to sit next to Dick. The view from the top floor of the building was quite spectacular, both noticed. The lights of the city, the cars moving up and down the street, and the glow of lighted windows and neon was a sight of surreal beauty.

"Just a really cold water for me, thank you, Felicity," said Barbara with a half smile as she settled herself. "If I know Dick, he'll probably want a Coke or something, unless he's in the mood for a real drink. But since he's driving, I'd guess a Coke would be fine," she continued, giving Dick a good natured smirk as she leaned her chin in her palm.

Dick chuckled softly and shrugged, "She knows me better than I know myself some days. A Coke it is, if you have it? And thank you." The wealthy young man looked over the woman hosting them again, giving her a much more in depth appraisal than he had before. She was intelligent, quick witted, and very nice, actually. A little quirky, but then again, who did Dick Grayson know that _wasn't_ quirky now and then?

The smile on Felicity's face was real, and it grew and shrunk back to its previous size a couple of times as she listened to the two of them banter playfully, and tried really, really hard to get her mind off the fact that she could barely think straight with Dick Grayson so close by. Oh, she knew that the two of them had to be a couple, by the way they acted, and of course, there was the fact she was madly in love with Oliver, though she wouldn't say so right now. There was too much to settle and work out for that to work anything like it should. Still, Dick was a very handsome guy, and it was impossible for her to ignore that fact when he was less than ten feet away from her.

She finally received a response from her assistant, and asked her to bring a very cold water, and two Cokes to her office. With that out of the way, she clapped her hands once nervously, trying to sit down before she fell and embarrassed herself further. "So," she began, feeling her smile grow nervous again. "Your company deals in many, many things, Mr. Grayson. I'm sure you've got a _huge_ number of very advanced, very important projects going on in your R &D departments. By comparison, Palmer Tech is probably a bit on the smaller side of things. Don't get me wrong, I'm very, very flattered you wanted to come and talk, and see the company, and all that. I honestly just don't know what we'd have that you don't probably have a thousand patents for already?"

Silence lingered for a moment, and continued as Felicity's assistant brought the drinks in for everyone, and made sure no one else needed anything. After she was gone, Dick chuckled softly, glancing at Barbara, then back to Felicity. That ever present charming smile flashing across the room, he tilted his head. "First, call me Dick," he said. "We're all friends here, right? And to answer your question, Felicity, it's true, we do have an incredible number of very advanced projects going on. But there's some really remarkable things we _don't_ have going on that I'd like to see happen. To put it mildly, you've got some miraculous things going on here, like that chip you mentioned that could possibly help Barbara walk again, for example. There are many other things your people are working on that are very promising."

He paused a moment, taking a drink of the Coke, letting it smoothly flow down his throat, or maybe he was pausing for dramatic effect. He finally continued, "What I wanted to speak to you about was the possibility of us perhaps working together, our two companies, and jointly researching and producing these wondrous things, with us splitting the costs with you as well, of course, and sharing the rights to produce them when the time is right to distribute them to the world. Now, I don't want us to have joint patents, nor do we want any sort of credit for their invention or conception. Everything that's yours is yours. I don't want a piece of any of it. But things can be researched, and produced, much faster with us joining forces to work on this, it'll be far less expensive, and that means we can give it to the world far more affordably. I understand if you're hesitant, but it's not every day that I run into a company I think that has such a huge list of projects that the world can definitely benefit from, but may be cost prohibitive to those that really need it. With our joint efforts, costs could be reduced drastically, and everyone benefits as a result."

Barbara watched Felicity's face as Dick spoke, trying to gauge just how far into La La Land she was. Felicity _seemed_ flustered, but she could tell that even if she was, she wasn't anything resembling dull witted and as soon as something seemed off, she'd snap right out of it. She was positive of this.

More, she felt very badly about borrowing this software in this way, but the think tanks at Grayson Enterprises and Wayne Tech had been trying for years to achieve the same thing, and hadn't had much success. When word came through the grapevine that Palmer Tech had finally figured it out, she knew she had to get it. She couldn't just ask for it outright, because that would mean explaining who they really were, and that was something neither she nor Dick were prepared or willing to do.

"You…you'd really be willing to do that?" asked Felicity, stammering almost in shock. Her face was spinning through several emotions all at once. "That chip could help millions of people around the world, but few people other than someone like you would ever be able to pay for it and the surgery required for it. With your help…oh my God, we could help so many people, and them not have to sell their soul to get it." The possibilities were busily spinning through her mind, and she couldn't believe her ears, but she was hearing it all the same.

"There are so many amazing things that could be made so much more readily available that way! I've always said that big companies should join forces instead of trying to outdo the other, and all the back stabbing and bickering and all that sort of thing could stop, and the little people could actually reach the things that they need to reach in order to live better lives, and can you imagine just how wonderful that'd be? It'd be almost like a storybook, only there's no book, and you wouldn't hear Burl Ives or Carl Sagan narrating it in the background, but there's so many possibilities…!" she gushed, her rambling going into overdrive. It was probably a combination between the incredible offer being made, and the fact it was handsome and dreamy Dick Grayson making the offer, but she didn't care at the moment.

Dick was trying hard not to burst into laughter, settling instead for a polite and soft chuckling. "That's right, Felicity," he agreed. "So many things could be more available to the general public, so many things that'd help, save lives, make the quality of life better, and so many more things, if it were funded properly, and the people producing it were more worried about helping than they were worried about their bottom line."

Barbara was liking Felicity more and more the more she heard, and the more they talked. That made what she felt they had to do even harder. She hoped she could think of some way to make up for it, once Deathstroke was back in a special prison where he belonged. He was far, far too dangerous to let stay loose and at liberty to do anything he wished anywhere he wished. Considering that he'd almost destroyed Star City a couple of years before, she hoped Felicity would be understanding when she finally found out what had happened, and learned why it had happened.

She looked over at Dick, and gave him the prearranged signal to keep her busy while she found a place to hack in and get access to the lab. While he was getting the software, she'd keep Felicity busy, and then they'd leave. He nodded slightly in understanding, and Barbara smiled in a friendly manner, asking, "Do you have a rest room I could borrow? I should have known the water would go right through me."

Felicity jumped as if she'd been stung for a second. She'd been talking so rapidly and paying so much attention to Dick, she'd forgotten for a moment that Barbara was still there. _I really need to get a grip,_ she thought to herself. _Dick…he let me call him Dick! Dick's really hot and nice and all, but he's not Oliver. I just wish I could get Oliver to get his head out of his ass and act even a tenth of the way Dick does. He seems so open and honest with Barbara and they make a great couple! Unless they're not a couple, and that could be sticky, but if they're not a couple, they'd make a great one!_ She could feel her thoughts running wild in her head, and she tried to clamp down on them before they spilled out of her mouth.

Trying not to giggle nervously, she smiled and nodded, "Oh, yes, of course. There's a rest room right down the hall, actually. If you take a left out of my door, and go past the next office, that's Mr. Palmer's office…well, it was when he was here, but since he's not here anymore because he's dead, and dead people really don't need an office, so it's really not his office anymore, though we haven't really messed with anything in there…oh, my God, I'm sorry. Anyway, it's right past the next office, which is about thirty feet down the hall, and its on the right." She couldn't believe she was being so disjointed at that moment. She wanted to kick herself.

"Thank you," Barbara said with a pleasant smile. She turned and headed for the door as Dick smoothly started talking again, keeping the lovely blonde off balance and her attention on something other than Barbara. In a matter of seconds, she was out the door and heading down the hallway.

X

Barbara wheeled down the hallway, listening to make sure Felicity was engrossed in talking to Dick, who was really pulling out the stops on the charm. She had told him she needed Felicity to be kept busy, and from the sound of things, he was doing exactly that. That left her free to find an access point and get through the security, so that Dick could make his way to the lab and borrow the software.

 _Since they never bothered anything in Palmer's office, that's probably the best place to access the system, other than Felicity's computer,_ Barbara thought as she made sure no one was looking and that the security cameras were turned away from her position. Working rapidly, she picked the lock and slipped inside before the camera swept back her way.

Once inside, she was glad the blinds were drawn over the large window facing the hallway. She immediately went to the desk and booted up the computer there, and pulled both a code picker and a programmable scrambler from her purse. The computer came to life, and she applied the code picker to it, and it scanned all the possibilities and unlocked the terminal. Pocketing the code picker again, she put the scrambler with its storage module in place, and began typing rapidly in a shell window.

Barbara frowned as she worked, her eyes never leaving the screen, but her sharp ears listening in case someone came her way. _The encryption and the security measures are both very sophisticated. I'm impressed. This isn't going to be a walk in the park, by any means,_ she thought as her fingers worked rapidly. The operation was taking longer than she originally estimated, so she was trying to increase her speed as much as she could.

Finally, the screen flashed, and she was in. She clicked through layer after layer of security protocols, recording solutions for each one into the programming sectors of her scrambler. When she finished deciphering the security protocols, she programmed the scrambler to run through them, so Dick would only have to set it in motion once he got to the lab.

She'd painstakingly done her research on the building, and figured out where the lab was that developed software and other computer related operations. She had it down to a science, now all they had to do was get in and out again. She shut everything down, and covered her tracks very nicely, where almost no one would be able to figure out that anyone had even been in the system at all.

Moving to the door, she listened a moment. She could hear the muffled sound of voices still down the hall, in Felicity's office. They sounded pretty much the same as they had when they left. Watching the camera, she waited until it swung away, then headed back to Felicity's office.

X

"…so as you can imagine, that particular project is of particular interest to me," Dick was saying as Barbara came back into the office. Barbara smiled lightly, not wishing to interrupt, but the conversation seemed to have come to a halt temporarily.

"Which project is of particular interest to you, Dick?" asked Barbara mildly as she came back to her spot, settling in. She had a sneaking suspicion she knew, but she wanted to be sure before she just assumed.

Just as Felicity was about to speak, the ear bud she wore became active again. Oliver's voice filtered into Felicity's ear, "Overwatch, what's the situation? We've got Freejack and his goons heading for a block party, a cell block party, at the SCPD city jail. Where are you? What's going on?"

The color in Felicity's face drained suddenly, and that all too wide smile returned to her lips as she clapped her hands once, nervously. Her voice was soft, quiet, as she looked over her guests. "Oh, I'm in a meeting with Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon," she said as quietly as she could, while feeling like a complete loon. Her suspicions were confirmed when both Dick and Barbara looked at her curiously.

Oliver's comments were mostly drowned out when Barbara asked, "Felicity, are you okay? Yes, you're in a meeting with us. I'm sure you noticed before now." She laughed softly, not meaning her words in a mean way, but it seemed her enthusiasm was mixing with her tendency to ramble a little and showing itself in a sudden realization.

Trying to think very rapidly on her feet, and tell Oliver what he needed to know, and be totally innocent about it to her guests, she painted that smile back on and nodded rapidly. "Oh, yes, I noticed. _Believe_ me, I noticed. I-I-I just can't believe it. It's like a dream or something," she managed to stammer out. "It's just amazing that you both just popped in tonight, and offered such an amazing proposal."

At the other end of the com, Oliver frowned under his mask, while John and Thea looked as confused as he did. He figured she had to be telling him that she was in a meeting with Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon, and that whatever was going on, it was an unusual proposal, especially for coming in at that time of night. He didn't know Dick personally, but he knew of him, his reputation, and his resources. He also knew that most business people didn't conduct business that late, even though Dick was notorious for popping up at odd hours in places sometimes.

"Something just seems off, Overwatch," he finally said, nodding a signal to Thea and John. "Keep them distracted until we can get there. It's probably nothing, but it won't hurt for Green Arrow to come take a look and see what your famous visitors are _really_ up to, if anything at all. You can never be too careful."

 _Oh, boy. It seems like something is setting off Oliver's paranoia. I mean, granted he's usually right, but this is_ _ **Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon!**_ she thought frantically. _Dick and Barbara are well known for being humanitarians, good people, and just all around great in general. Unless of course that's just a front, and they're really shifty, despicable, nasty types with fake smiles and clammy hands, only their hands weren't clammy, and they haven't been shifty at all. No more than I have, anyway. Not that I've been being shifty, but…get a grip, Felicity. Just take it easy, one step at a time!_

Still half stammering, Felicity's smile grew, quite nervously, and she stood up suddenly, clapping her hands together loudly in front of her. "This is such great news, it really is, it's so great I can't believe it. I'm really making a deal with you two. Both of you. It's so wild!" She came out from behind her desk, and started half pacing about the office.

"In fact, it's so great, I feel like celebrating. Do you feel like celebrating? I feel like celebrating, so let's celebrate. That way, we can relax, and I can see what you're up to…up to as in what sort of level you want to take this to. Not that I'm saying you're up to something, of course you're not up to something, you're fantastic people, and you don't need to be up to anything…oh, God, please just shut me up. I'm excited. But I guess you could tell that already, huh?" rambled Felicity, hoping Oliver and company got something out of that.

Barbara and Dick looked at each other a moment, and then back at their host. With a slow nod, and a genuine smile, she finally said, "Maybe a drink would be a good idea after all. It's okay to be excited, really. What Dick has in mind is amazing, and it's only going to benefit both of you, and everyone that will need the advances you're both talking about."

Seeing the handoff, Dick picked up the ball, so to speak, and once more, flashed that winning smile of his. "Besides, I want to do the same thing with a lot of stuff that my company is working on as well. Joint ventures all the way around, but with no legal tie ups, or a big credit squabble of any sort. Fresh minds never hurt anything. My people can definitely use a surge of fresh thinking for some of the projects they're working on, and I'm willing to bet your people wouldn't be hurt by an infusion of fresh thinking and eyes, either," he concluded, chuckling softly.

Felicity shook her head so fast, she could swear she heard her eyes rattle, and nervously tittered, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, that's true. Fresh thinking and fresh eyes never hurt anything, especially if they're having a problem. Not that I'm saying your people or my people are having a problem, only that if they were, the extra minds working on the problem wouldn't hurt anything, unless they were, but neither of us would hire some sort of whacko like that, so we don't have to worry about that. It sounds great, I love it!"

The whole time she was rambling, Felicity was fervently praying, _Whatever you're going to do, Oliver, I hope you hurry up and do it, and get it over with. I don't know what you think they might be up to, because I don't think they're up to anything, and if he's planning on sticking it to me….oh, God, bad, bad, bad choice of words! Where do all these innuendos come from, any way? Lord help me, I've been around my mother way too long!_ She swallowed, regarding her guests, as the inconspicuous light that let her know someone was in the Bunker started flashing. She knew Oliver, John and Thea had arrived, and her stomach knotted up, wondering how all this was going to play out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Dick glanced at Barbara as they spoke with Felicity, and the look on Barbara's face spoke very loudly that she found the whole tone of the conversation had suddenly shifted in some way. Giving her a very subtle nod as Felicity poured a drink for all of them, he prepared to set stage two of their plan into motion.

For her part, Felicity was busily putting ice into three glasses, and trying to restrain her nervous tension. She knew very well that Oliver, John, and Thea were on their way up from the Bunker, and Oliver was suspicious. _And we all know what a suspicious Oliver means,_ she thought dejectedly, as she opened the cabinet where her alcohol was kept for those special meetings that called for a celebration. _It means all hell is going to break loose any second, and when the dust settles, maybe they can get out of here without the whole evening going South._

"Name your poison," bubbled Felicity, right before her face went chalk white and her eyes widened. "Not that I'd try to poison you guys or anything, it's just an expression. You know, tell me what you want to drink and all that. My bar is pretty stocked, well not stocked like a bar's bar would be stocked, that'd be crazy, but I've got some pretty top shelf stuff if you want to tell me something you want and I'll get as close to it as I can, if I can't get it exactly. Sound good? It sounds good to me," she nervously tittered. She really, really hoped that whatever Oliver had in mind, it'd be more subtle than his normal sneak up and start bashing the shit out of people approach.

Apparently nonplussed, Dick smiled that damnable smile again, and raised a hand in a conciliatory manner. "I'll take a spiced rum and Coke, if you've got it. If not, whiskey and Coke is good. I'm easy to please, since I don't drink very often," he chuckled softly, settling in his seat, preparing himself to make his excuse to head down to the lab. "And just to put you at ease, we knew what you meant, and that you weren't planning on poisoning us."

"I'll take the same, Felicity," Barbara replied, as she caught Dick's eye out of the corner of her own. She knew he was getting ready to make his escape, so to speak, so stage two of this little operation could go into effect. Every second made the bad taste in her mouth grow even more sour at the idea of fleecing Felicity like that. She genuinely liked the woman, who had a reputation for being quite the genius, among other things.

"Oh, thank God," breathed Felicity, mixing two spiced rum and Cokes, and pouring herself three fingers' worth of vodka. She had a feeling she was going to need it before the night was over. She brought their drinks to them, handing each of her guests a glass. "My mind gets to moving in a million different directions at once, and it tends to set me off on tangents, or make me a little distracted. Not that you guys aren't interesting and capable of keeping my attention, I just get ideas, and they kind of explode, you know, and… and I'm doing it again."

She smiled nervously, as she picked her own drink up a little more energetically than was necessary. "I'm _very_ interested. In both of you. Interested as in fascinated and admiring you both, not interested like _interested_ interested, not to say you're both not very attractive either, but…" Felicity's hands spun in circles before her, obviously having gotten flustered by then, if one could judge by how red her face had gotten. "Shit!" she exclaimed in a whisper and downed her drink in one gulp.

Barbara felt more pangs of sympathy for the very likable younger woman she sat across from. _I really wish it didn't have to be this way. If we weren't in such a bind for time being so precious, I'm sure Dick's people could crack the problem, but we don't have that kind of time. Every second Deathstroke is loose is another ten or so people he could be killing,_ she thought with a frown, her delicate brows furrowed over her eyes stubbornly.

Slade Wilson was extremely dangerous, by any normal estimation, and the fact that he had been enhanced by the crazy Mirakuru concoction Ivo had put together, which was permanent, made him even more so. His enhanced strength, agility, endurance, speed and other physical abilities, not to mention that rapid fire enhanced synaptic response and brain utilization expansion he had made him even more deadly. Then on top of that, his extensive training, and sheer relentlessness made him more deadly still. All Barbara knew was that somehow they had to catch him and put him away.

With his enhancements, he could give Batman more than a run for his money, physically. He could match muscles with Aquaman, who's own strength was enhanced by living miles under the ocean in the extreme pressures of the deep currents constantly working his body, and was subsequently several times stronger than most surface men. He could keep both Batman and Dick on their toes, intellectually speaking, with his enhanced synaptic functions and brain utilization, which allowed him to acquire, store, and access knowledge and critical thinking much faster and efficiently than most men. _Hell, he could probably make Superman do a double take when he didn't go down with the first love tap he'd give Slade. A man like that, with his kind of insanity, physical attributes and pure disregard for others in general, does_ _ **not**_ _belong out in the world, free as a bird._

Dick took his drink from Felicity as she handed Barbara hers, and he went to take a sip from the glass, and "accidentally" missed his mouth, spilling the cold liquid all over his shift. "Goddamnit, and this is one of my favorite shirts, too," Dick exclaimed, abruptly standing up, while ice slid down his body. "I can't believe I did that. I think my head is too far in the clouds, being alone with two such beautiful women," he added charmingly, with another of those smiles.

Felicity was obviously mortified. "Oh, my God, what the hell is wrong with me tonight? I'm so, _so_ sorry, Dick. I mean Mr. Grayson. I mean…damn," she rattled out with a flustered tone. Her face only reddened further at Dick's comment about two beautiful women. She grabbed a bar towel, and started to dab at Dick's wet clothes, but caught herself, offering it to him with an almost comically astonished expression.

"Dick, are you okay?" asked Barbara, as she tried to sound concerned, as though something might have been wrong, strictly for their act, and Felicity's benefit. "I didn't think your dizziness was bothering you tonight, like it often does after we've flown a long way."

"Dizziness? _Dizziness?_ Oh, God…I'm so very expertly making this meeting a disaster," Felicity wailed dejectedly, as she waved her hands about, since she didn't have anything to occupy them with at the moment. She was much more adroit when her fingers were busily typing away than trying to survive a social meeting.

Dick chuckled as he held out a hand to take the towel from his red faced hostess, and held the other in a calming manner, palm towards Felicity. "Dick is still fine, Felicity, and honestly, it's not your fault. I should have been paying more attention," he told her with the same bemused expression he'd been wearing most of the meeting. The spiced rum and Coke had made a huge stain on his very nice, very expensive shirt and pants, and the liquid was rolling down the fabric rapidly.

"I just need to use that bathroom Barbara used earlier is all," he continued, giving her a debonair wink to try to put her more at ease. "No, Barbara, I'm fine. It wasn't the dizziness at all, I just did that stupid thing most guys do now and then, and let myself get distracted. Not a great idea when you're drinking something and wearing Armani." He laughed lightly, shaking his head, presumably at his own _faux pas_.

"Oh. Oh! Of course, of course, of course you can," babbled Felicity in shock and mortification. "It's left out the door, and down the hall. You can't miss it. Not that I'm suggesting you walk like you tried to drink your drink. Just that it's really obvious, right there on the right… and I'm going to shut up now." She sat back down and tossed her glasses on the desk, and planted her face in her palms.

As Dick left the room, shutting the door behind him, Barbara wheeled her chair over to where Felicity sat, and she reached up a hand to reassuringly grasp the younger woman's shoulder. Her face bore a soft and reassuring smile, the smile of a friend consoling another as she spoke, "Hey, really, it's okay, Felicity. Dick can be a little bit of a klutz when he's distracted. He's by no means upset or angry. You'll learn Dick is really easy going and good natured about that sort of thing. So don't fret about it, okay?"

Felicity's eyes were red and puffy, and the obvious tracks of tears were still wet on her cheeks as she looked up, and Barbara felt that awful twisting in her gut, the twisting of guilt, once more. Felicity sniffed, and groaned, "That's easy for you to say, Barbara. You didn't just dump a mixed drink in his lap, or I might as well have. I'd barely let go of it when Niagara Falls found it's way into his lap, and all over that gorgeous suit he's wearing. It's ruined!"

 _Hurry, Dick, hurry. Do what you have to, and let's get out of here before we give poor Felicity a complex,_ Barbara thought as she rubbed Felicity's back and shoulder, and spoke soft encouraging words to her. _This is turning out to be a royal fumble all the way around. I know it's something we have to do, but I hate doing this to Felicity, and then making her feel this way on top of it. Hurry, Dick. Hurry!_

X

Dick had calmly walked into the bathroom down the hall from Felicity's office, as he was expected to do. He pulled some paper towels from the dispenser after he locked the door. He also locked the hot air hand dryer into the on position, so the noise would cover any sound he may make, however small, as he dabbed the liquid off his shirt and pants.

He threw the paper towels away, and moved to the window, which opened out onto the side of the building. He was many floors above the ground, and the window was high up, and smaller than a standard window, to help prevent anyone from getting the sort of bright idea he had right then. His eyes moved over the outside wall, and examined each and every possible surface. There were several ledges and projections, which made the young man smile.

 _Piece of cake,_ he thought, as he slipped out of the suit jacket and hung it on the hook on the back of the stall door. He checked his grappling gun and made sure it was secure in it's hiding place. It was comforting to know it was there, but he was sure he wouldn't need it. _I'm the last living Flying Grayson, acrobat and trapeze artist extraordinaire. This is like doing a quadruple somersault or an intricate series of flips, twists, tucks and more without a net. Easiest thing in the world._

He slipped out the window carefully, and his feet found the ledge, the narrow ledge, under it. The wind whipped through his long hair, despite it being bound back in a ponytail at that moment, and the cool air brought back a lot of memories. Visions of himself, performing amazing feats of acrobatics and agility in the past played through his mind, both as a performer with his parents in the Haly Circus, and as Robin alongside Batman in Gotham City. By comparison, this would be easy enough, he thought.

His eyes fell to the ledge, then to the window washer lift, and a couple of projections that were part of the building design, mapping out his pattern before he ever moved. _The lab should be five floors down. I've got the code picker and scrambler both on me, and both getting down and getting back up should be easy as pie. I can scramble the security system on the window, too, with this thing, according to what Babs said._

The world's greatest acrobat took a couple of deep breaths, and leaped out into the air. His body flew through the air, until his hands caught on the rail of the platform, and he swung his weight upwards, twisted in the air, and caught the rail again. When his momentum swung his legs upwards again, he flexed his hips and back, increasing the force they swung with, and he released the railing, moving back in the direction he'd come.

His body curled and bent, turning a full three back flips through the air until he was able to grab the decorative projection. When his hands made contact, he was hurtling towards it as if he'd dived off a diving board. Twisting his body clockwise, he let his feet fall, righting himself long enough to springboard off the projection, and back flip towards the building again, landing on the ledge of the floor the lab was on.

Looking down, he was grateful for the pale illumination of the lights around the building that was cast up the building's side. He was in near darkness, which would cover his movements mostly from the ground, along with the fact that he was at a dizzying height still, even having come down five floors from his previous position. With a satisfied smile, he placed the code picker against the reinforced glass, and watched the numbers tick by as it worked on the security code guarding the windows.

X

Green Arrow came around the corner, bow drawn and arrow at the ready. His face was twisted in a scowl of anger. The thief had been nearly flawless, but Felicity always had a backup plan for security. A silent alarm had been tripped when Ray Palmer's access sequence had been used, which was a neat trick for a guy that everybody thought was dead. The only problem was that the alarm didn't trigger until the thief had whatever he was after, and was on his way out.

Even with the security lights being the only illumination in the hallway, Green Arrow could see the quickly moving form ahead of him. "Stop where you are, and this doesn't have to get ugly!" he shouted in his normal growling voice, filtered through the voice changer he kept on him. He could also see Spartan rounding the corner at the far end of the hall, and Speedy was coming up from the middle. The thief was effectively cornered.

When the figure didn't stop, he fired the arrow down the hallway, it being a trap arrow designed to immobilize it's target by wrapping it up in a net that sprung from the shaft. The shadowy figure must have caught sight of it out of the corner of his eye, because he whirled suddenly, releasing something small and black from his hand. There was a metallic clang as the object struck the arrow and deflected it to the side, where it only narrowly missed Speedy as she came out of the side hall.

Speedy's eyes widened in surprise as the arrow activated, the sound of the net whipping through the air, bouncing down the hall, the net clattering against the floor. Seeing the shadowy figure bearing down on her without even missing a beat, she took a ready position, and immediately swung her bow in a vicious strike that had caught more than one adversary off guard, and had inflicted quite a bit of damage.

The bow swished through empty air as the thief suddenly changed vectors, running up the wall on her left side. As she reversed, trying to catch the thief on the back swing, the figure cart wheeled through the air, striking downward towards her head with a rapidly moving fist. She narrowly evaded the punch, and moved to attack from the opposite side even as the thief's feet hit the floor silently.

Once again, she was astonished as the thief's feet had barely touched the floor before he was again in the air, flipping neatly over her head, landing directly behind her, and his arm came across her upper body, pulling her over his hip, and sending her shoulders crashing into the floor, eliciting a startled and surprised noise from her throat.

As soon as Speedy hit the ground, Spartan was right there, with Green Arrow bearing down on him from behind. It looked as if he was about to be stopped dead in his tracks as Spartan swung a heavy handed haymaker towards the thief's jaw, prepared to fully follow up with a second move. The last thing in the world he expected was for the shadowy figure to jump straight up, and kick him hard with both feet in the chest, knocking him backwards hard, to fall on his ass on the slick floor.

The figure used the momentum he built by kicking Spartan's chest to springboard backwards, and effect a high back flip, which brought him down to sit on Green Arrow's shoulders, even as Oliver swung his bow in a harsh attack, which struck only empty air. Green Arrow roared in anger and surprise as the figure wasted no time. He instantly shifted his weight, whirling from Oliver's shoulders, using his legs and knees to twist the Emerald Archer's body counter clockwise, flipping him over and onto his back hard on the polished floor.

The smack Oliver's body made on the floor was sickening, even with his armored suit absorbing a lot of the impact. By that time, Speedy had regained her feet, and once more struck at the man that'd just taken her brother down as if he were a sack of flour, something she'd never really seen before. She was seeing red at that point, and determined to hurt whoever this was that was making them look like the Three Stooges.

Before she could fully commit to the attack, the figure had rolled to his feet, and immediately leaped into the air, spinning counter clockwise, his left leg flashed out, catching Speedy soundly in the jaw with his foot, and even as Speedy was spun towards her right, the figure's right foot also connected with the side of her face, literally cart wheeling her into the wall.

As Speedy slid down the wall, dazed, Spartan lunged at the figure, intending to bear hug him, since he couldn't very well shoot at him, with Oliver still behind the figure, nor could Oliver fire arrows at him, since he was between Green Arrow and Spartan. The idea was to capture and restrain him, so this was the only option left up to the former military man.

The thief spun on the ball of his foot and ran up the wall to Spartan's left, and reached out, grabbing both the big man's shoulders as he whipped his body around to land on the floor. His momentum spun Spartan counter clockwise, which slung him into the rising form of Speedy, and the advancing body of Green Arrow, who was drawing another arrow.

The figure touched the floor and immediately launched into a series of front hand springs that carried him down the hall, and enabled him to always be just out of reach of the green and red arrows whizzing his way. The hall ended with the window, which the thief leaped up, grabbed the top of the window, swinging his body straight up. His hands came loose and he was immediately out of sight.

"Who the hell _is_ this guy?" asked Speedy in anger and frustration. She was just getting her bow back in hand, and coming to her feet, as her brother stopped firing and ran to the window to look out it, beside Spartan.

John Diggle leaned out the window and looked up. Though Oliver couldn't see his face, he could tell John's jaw had dropped about a mile. "Are you goddamned _kidding_ me?" he yelled in amazement and frustration as he, Oliver and Thea all watched the shadowy figure bouncing from one thing to another, performing the sort of gymnastics that'd make an Olympic competitor shake with terror without missing a beat.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Thea, unable to believe her eyes, just as John couldn't believe his own. She pulled back in from the window and stared at Oliver, shaking her head in disbelief. "What are we dealing with? Some sort of metahuman jack rabbit?"

"Jack rabbits don't fight like that, and sure as hell don't bounce around like that," quipped John, unable to believe what he'd just seen. He'd pulled his helmet off, and the expression on his face was much like the expression he wore every time he was around Barry Allen, the Flash, and he moved at impossible speeds. "But I'd say definitely metahuman. No regular guy can move like that. Can they?"

Oliver's eyes narrowed as he snapped his bow from one hand to the other. His voice was a growl, low and guttural, as he headed towards the elevator, with Thea and John in tow, "Oh, he's a regular human, all right. He's just an amazing acrobat, and he's had _extensive_ training in martial arts. There's only a handful of people in the world that can move like _that._ And the lead suspect is five floors above us, heading for Felicity's office as we speak."

"You're kidding? You think that was _Dick Grayson?_ Rich boy Dick Grayson, owner of a multibillion dollar company, and media darling?" asked John, his helmet back in place, as the elevator started moving upwards.

Thea turned quickly to stare at Oliver in disbelief as they rode upwards. "Are you out of your mind, Ollie? What makes you think that could be _possibly_ be Dick Grayson? Dick Grayson is rich, eccentric, and is the definition of philanthropist. Just because he's hot doesn't mean he's a human jumping bean," she frowned, not believing what she was hearing. Rich guys didn't skulk around in the dark, doing industrial espionage, or whatever the guy had been doing there.

Oliver regarded them both silently for a few seconds, before he finally said, "Before he was a rich kid, and generous benefactor, he was an acrobat in the Haly Circus. It tours all over the world, even today. Dick Grayson is the _only_ person still alive who could execute a quadruple somersault. His parents were the only other people who could do it. They were the Flying Graysons.

"Mom and Dad took me to see them at the circus when I was twelve. Even as a seven year old kid, Dick Grayson wowed audiences and amazed countless people with his acrobatic prowess. I doubt very seriously he just let that all go when his parents died and he went to live with Bruce Wayne in Gotham City as his legal ward." Oliver's face was stone cold serious as he said all this, making John and Thea feel the cold sinking feeling in their guts all that more vividly.

"So what you're saying is we're chasing an Olympian plus level acrobat, who's also rich as hell, and has probably an army of lawyers at his disposal, and who will smile his way right out of this whole thing without batting an eye?" asked Thea incredulously.

Her brother didn't bother to reply. Instead, he growled into the com unit, "Overwatch, keep your guests busy at all costs. We're on our way in."

Felicity was apparently talking to Barbara, and Dick who'd just come back into the office based on what they were all hearing over the com. The elevator dinged, and the doors opened onto the floor where Felicity's office was.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN** – Sorry it's taken so long to update. Everything's been crazy and my health issues have been chaotic as well. Hope you enjoy the story and continue to enjoy!

Oh, and by the way, I'm a very huge fan of the comics and like to keep continuity as close as possible, so while I love the relationship between Dinah (Laurel of course) and Ollie in the comics, in _Arrow_ I love the relationship between Oliver and Felicity. Just for the record, so far I don't like this whiny sounding, baby faced detective she's apparently involved with at the moment in the show. I read somewhere that Andrew Kriesberg and Greg Berlanti have said that "Olicity" is officially over and done with, and would not be rekindling. I don't like this bit of news any more than the rumor/announcement that _Supergirl_ will **not** be joining the "Flarrowverse" universe.

It's silly to say that someone _had_ to have mentioned Superman and Supergirl literally all the way across the country (in Superman's case), and aliens to boot, for them to exist in the same universe. First, remember the god awful movie _Batman and Robin_ (1997), starring George Clooney as Batman, and his statement to Robin that, "This is why Superman works alone?" Superman was never mentioned before, or after, this statement, yet he exists in the same universe.

Also, in the deleted scenes in the pilot episode of _The Flash_ , Joe and Barry are walking down the street, discussing Barry's obsession with "the impossible." Joe mentions both "a guy that can supposedly talk to fish," and "a guy that can bend steel in his bare hands." Sounds like Aquaman and Superman to me. Further, when Felicity is trying to think of a codename, Oliver says, "I was going to suggest Oracle, but it's taken." This is an offhanded way of mentioning that the Bat Family, or at least Barbara Gordon, exists in the Flarrowverse. If you insist on them absolutely _having_ to have been mentioned, those are the definition of "having been mentioned." Nobody around here mentions Billy Joe Jim Bob Walton, specifically, yet it's entirely possible that he exists _somewhere_ in the world. Stranger things have happened, and yet need not have been mentioned in order to exist.

Anyway, I thought I'd bring those points up while they were on my mind. Enough ranting! On with the story!

 **Chapter 6**

Team Arrow were still licking their collective wounds, both to their bodies and their pride, on the way up to Felicity's office in the elevator. John inserted a fresh magazine into each of his pistols, and chambered a round in each. "So, you think this Grayson guy is a costumed crook, like we're costumed vigilantes, or a thief that can bounce down a hallway like Bugs Bunny, and fight like Bruce Lee?"

"Well, he wasn't wearing what looked like a costume to me," interjected Thea as she adjusted the strap on her quiver and held her bow at the ready. "He looked more like he was dressed for a garden party than wearing a costume. Unless, of course, he's Soirée Man or something." She started to laugh at her own joke, but stifled it when she saw Oliver's expression. He was many things, but amused wasn't one of them.

Green Arrow set his jaw, clenched tightly, and switched his bow to his left hand, while drawing an arrow from his quiver. Above them, the numbers counted up, until the floor with Felicity's office was reached. "He's a talented guy, with more training than one would notice under normal circumstances, who decided to mess with the wrong crowd tonight. No costume, no codename, just bad choices." He readied his bow, as Speedy did with hers, and Spartan did with his guns. The elevator dinged, and the doors started sliding open.

X

Dick slipped back in the bathroom window, and retrieved his jacket, putting it back on. His shirt was stained, but mostly dry by now. He checked his hair in the mirror, smiled at his reflection, then headed back to Felicity's office.

Barbara had her hand on Felicity's shoulder and was apparently trying to console her when he walked into the room. Barbara looked up at him, and he gave her a subtle signal to expect trouble, serious trouble. Barbara nodded almost imperceptibly. She wasn't sure what the trouble might be, but the prearranged signal was one that meant big trouble, and she mentally prepared herself for whatever might come.

"Sorry about taking so long, ladies," Dick said with a half chuckle as he came through the door, making a subtle show of brushing the stain on his shirt with a hand. "It was a little awkward trying to get the entire stain under the hand dryer. I almost fell twice." He laughed good naturedly, making light of his own implied clumsiness.

Felicity stiffened as Oliver's message came through her ear com. She wasn't sure what to do, or how, exactly, to keep Dick and Barbara busy, but her worst fears about the coming events seemed to be coming true like a doomsday prophecy. Oliver and the others were only seconds from coming out of the elevator at the end of the hall. Images of Dick in the bathroom, trying to twist his stomach and pelvis under the hand dryer to try and dry his clothes, and almost falling, raced through her mind, and she felt mortified once more.

"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry about that, Dick. You didn't hurt yourself, did you? I'd feel really bad if you did, and of course the insurance company would have a field day with my premiums if a guest was injured during a visit, and I don't even want to _think_ about what your impression of our company, and by extension me, would be after such a disaster, that'd be bad, really bad, and I don't want you to leave with bad memories, so please let me try to make all this up so you leave with a good impression, I hate bad impressions," blurted Felicity, the color draining from her face more and more as she spoke, running her words together like a bolt of lightning.

Dick chuckled and held up his hands again, even as Barbara gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze. "Felicity, really, it's okay. My own insurance would handle any sort of injury like that, or anything, and you haven't made a bad impression at all. In fact, you've —" He was cut off in mid sentence by the sound of the elevator dinging.

Barely a second later, the Green Arrow, Speedy, and Spartan burst through the door of the office. "Dick Grayson," growled Green Arrow, his bow drawn, and his disguised voice sounding quite pissed, took up a position where his arrow wouldn't harm Felicity, or the woman in the wheelchair he assumed had to be Barbara Gordon, if he fired. "You've broken into a secure vault in the building, and stolen proprietary property of Palmer Technologies, and if you surrender now, you'll be handed over to the SCPD, and be comfortably in a cell by midnight. If you don't surrender…well, let's just hope you're as smart as I think you are."

Felicity was staring, open mouthed, at the scene occurring in her office at that moment in pure shock. She started to think that this couldn't possibly be happening, but this was Oliver. _Of course it's happening. Just when you think your day couldn't get more complicated_ , she thought in an almost defeated voice. "Okay, okay, let's everybody just calm down, and let's handle this peacefully, okay?" she asked. Her hands were up in a separating motion, trying to turn the confrontation into a standoff, or better.

Dick's face underwent a transformation. Gone was the happy go lucky, roguishly charming smile and easy going attitude he'd had up until this point. His face was now serious, far too calm to have two arrows and two semiautomatic pistols pointed at him in a confined space. His eyes had hardened, not to a wrathful glare, but to a ready to act firm gaze. "You're right, I have broken into a vault and stolen property of Palmer Tech. But, if you give me a moment, I think I can explain –-"

Unfortunately, Dick didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. Speedy's bow went suddenly from a ready draw to a full draw, aim, and fire position. "There's nothing to explain, Pretty Boy. You put up a fight downstairs, so we're not giving you a chance to do your jack rabbit routine again!" As she spoke her last couple of words, her fingers released the arrow, sending it racing towards the billionaire's shoulder.

As the talk was distracting everyone, Barbara had surreptitiously wheeled back from Felicity's side to a position closer to Spartan. Her hands moved from the wheel rails on her chair to a pair of shafts that appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, some sort of brace for the chair. All she was waiting on was a reason to act. Her proximity to Spartan was a precautionary measure, a setup position that she hoped she wouldn't need to act on.

Dick saw Speedy's fingers release the arrow, and instantly, his amazingly honed reflexes took over. He sidestepped to the left, spinning clockwise at the same time. He snatched the arrow out of the air with his left hand, which would have only grazed him had it been allowed to continue, instead of striking him full in the shoulder. As he spun, he reached into an inside pocket and withdrew two circular disks, and released them as he turned. The disks traveled with lightning speed and accuracy, striking the fingers of both Green Arrow and Speedy which held their bows, the impact stinging enough to make them drop their weapons.

The surprise was visible on the two archers' faces. They definitely weren't expecting that sort of accuracy. Apparently, Dick Grayson had far more martial arts training than even his earlier exhibition suggested.

At the same time, Barbara withdrew the two "braces" from her chair, which were, in actuality, Escrima sticks. With her left hand, she swung upwards, catching Spartan's wrists with the strike, sending his arms upwards, causing the involuntary gunshot to go through the ceiling, instead of someone. A split second later, her right stick slammed horizontally against his lower abdomen, right above the belt, sending him flying backwards, stunned, to the floor. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, to find himself facing a wheelchair bound, but nonetheless very mobile, Barbara Gordon, her Escrima sticks at the ready, and an expression that said she meant business.

Angered, and more than a little surprised, Speedy growled and leaped forward towards Dick, spinning in the air with her body parallel to the floor, to deliver a brutal spinning kick to Dick's neck and shoulder. Her training in the fighting styles of the League of Assassins, taught to her by her father, Malcolm Merlyn, came to the fore, thought trading places with instinct and reaction. Her feet touched the floor, and she immediately whirled clockwise to strike at his face with a vicious elbow strike.

"Speedy!" yelled Green Arrow, but his shout was lost in the confusion. They'd already faced Dick once that night, and had been unprepared, and subsequently were walked over like they were barely an obstacle at all, by a man they'd severely underestimated. They wouldn't make that mistake again.

Immediately, he stepped forward, intent on helping Speedy take Dick down with as little trouble as possible. The quicker they had him down, the quicker he could be restrained, and turned over to the police.

The spinning kick from Speedy had taken Dick off guard, despite his amazing reflexes, so had landed solidly on his neck and shoulder, forcing him to hunker down with the impact, and feel a stab of pain where it connected. However, that stab of pain also cleared his mind, made him more alert, and when she spun for her elbow attack, he was turning counter clockwise, evading the strike all together. Her strike passed through empty air, throwing her center of gravity off, and her balance faltered.

Meanwhile, Dick dodged one attack to immediately find himself in the path of another. A green gloved fist was hurtling towards his face like a freight train out of control, so he raised his right arm in a semicircular motion, his forearm striking Green Arrow's forearm right behind the wrist, and twisted his hand to grab the archer's wrist, intending to use his own momentum against him, and flip him over and to the right into the wall.

It was Dick's turn to be surprised when Green Arrow did the unexpected. He allowed Dick's block to alter the trajectory and momentum of his punch, and as he felt Dick's fingers grasp his wrist, he instinctively twisted counter clockwise and moved forward, slipping under Dick's arm and gaining leverage into a wide crouch, grabbed the arm that held his, and with a swift rocking motion, flipped Dick over his hip to land him on his back on the floor, hard. There was more than a little satisfaction in his face as that split second registered in his mind.

The billionaire struck the floor hard, in an impact that would have jarred most men. His extensive training under the Batman, and his own escapades solo and with the Titans as Nightwing, had made such occurrences a momentary annoyance, rather than a setback. Still, he was impressed. Green Arrow's reputation wasn't overstated. Few people could pull such a maneuver successfully on him. He could see extensive training in the archer, some of it League of Assassins training, in his fighting style, and it was a force to be respected.

He rolled back to his feet quickly, prepared to continue the fight, but as Green Arrow had kept him occupied, Speedy had recovered her bow, and fired an arrow, striking him in the shoulder, just under the clavicle. He growled out as the sharp point of the arrow stabbed through his flesh, erupting out the other side of his body. Blood spurted from the wound, but though it felt like hell, it was a shot intended to shock him and slow him down, not hurt him. The shot was too precise to have been an accident.

As all this was playing out on one side of the room, at the same time on the other side, a slightly different scenario was playing out. John was assessing the woman in the wheelchair with the Escrima sticks, and was figuring out quickly that she was a much more capable and formidable opponent than anyone would think. She could, and would, hurt him if she had to, he could see it in her eyes. Her eyes were steel, full of determination and fight, held in check by both her lack of desire to hurt anyone, and by the cold assurance she could most _definitely_ hurt someone, badly, if she felt it necessary.

"I really don't want to fight you, Lady," he said slowly, trying to catch his breath, and get over his surprise. "I'm not in the habit of hitting women. Now, why don't you play nice, and put the sticks down before someone gets hurt." He was trying to reason with her, and she gave no indication that she was acknowledging reason. _Not to mention it's very possible I'll be hurting at least as much as you will if this goes any further._

Barbara's lips curled into a faint smile, and the steel in her eyes didn't diminish or soften at all. "You won't hit a woman, but you have absolutely no problem pointing two .45's at one, a woman in a wheelchair at that, fully prepared to pull the triggers? That's a bit of a schism, don't you think?" Her voice was calm, and quiet, but her eyes spoke of anything but calm. She was a bolt of lightning, prepared to strike at any moment.

She didn't lower the sticks a fraction of an inch, and John could tell that business was the very least of what she meant if he didn't play this very carefully. Wheelchair or not, this redhead knew how to fight, and fight _damned_ well. He could feel his abdomen and wrists bruising even as he stood there. His guns had fallen to the floor several feet away, and he knew Barbara would be on top of him if he even smelled like he was going for them. _If only my troops when I was in Afghanistan could have been handicapped in such a way_ , he thought with no small amount of irony. _We could have taken down the insurgents and cleared the city safely in days, rather than months, without firing a shot._

The sounds from the fight across the room reached John's ears and he chanced a glance in that direction, and saw that Oliver and Thea seemed to have a handle on it. It was a good thing she couldn't see his eyes under his helmet, John thought. He turned his attention back to her, "I just didn't want you to get any funny ideas. You're a _lot_ more dangerous than you look, Red."

Barbara's smile turned wry, and she kept her eyes on him. "Why, thank you," she said, and he wasn't sure if she was being sincere, or sarcastic. It sure sounded sarcastic, if it was or not. With the speed of a striking cobra, her hand lashed out, landing a strike with the stick on his inner thigh. Instinctively, he bent double to try to protect his groin, and Barbara took advantage of that. She swung the second stick hard, slamming into his helmet, the sound reverberating through his head, along with pain and dizziness.

Barbara had no illusions about the match up between her and her opponent. If it came down to strength, he had her without question. If it came down to mobility, pretty much the same thing. She knew, just from how he held himself and his actions, that he was an honorable man, and wouldn't resort to fighting a woman if he could avoid it. Unfortunately for him, Barbara wasn't so inclined to let him avoid it. If she had use of her legs, she knew she could give him a very damned good run for his money. She used to make Dick work hard before the Joker crippled her. She'd had to change her style and tactics since then, though. Right now, she was intent on using that style and those tactics to their full extent, to subdue the vigilante without really hurting him.

At that moment, however, all the fighters in the room were startled by the sudden sound of a very loud crash. Felicity had slammed both fists down on her desk, yelling at the top of her lungs, "Will you all just _stand the hell down and listen to me?_ " Stunned, everyone stopped in mid action, and slowly lowered their weapons or hands, turning to look at her, mostly in shock that the quiet and often babbling woman had so forcefully demanded their attention.

Felicity kept her momentum going, stepping out from behind her desk, glaring at all of them. "Listen to me, all of you, and don't you dare say a word until I'm done," she began, daring each of them with her eyes to open their mouths. "I don't know, _exactly,_ what's going on here, but I know there's a _perfectly_ reasonable explanation for _all_ of it. There _has_ to be."

She continued to glower at them all as she stepped further away from her desk, her speech gaining speed, but losing none of its determined force. She touched Dick on the shoulder, and gestured towards Barbara. "I know there has to be because this is Dick freaking Grayson, and Barbara freaking Gordon, two of the nicest, most genuine, most selfless, and most helpful people on the damned planet. Dick's a damned _billionaire,_ so his theft of that software, and I know exactly what it was that you stole, by the way, _has_ to be for a good reason, and _not_ something malicious or dangerous. They wouldn't do that, despite how this all looks right now."

She moved on to look at Oliver, Thea and John, one after the other. "And you guys are Team Arrow. _Team Arrow._ You protect people, you keep the city and the people in it safe. Masks or no masks, or helmet in your case, Spartan, you guys are the _good_ guys. Do you hear me? _The good guys._ "

She let silence reign for a moment before continuing, "Dick and Barbara, no matter what this looks or seems like, are the good guys. Good guys fighting good guys is a bad thing, and good guys shouldn't do bad things, so why don't you all stop doing bad things and _talk_ to each other, _listen_ to each other, and stop the damned fighting? You're all smart people. You know you should think with your heads, not your fists. Now, are you guys _done_ beating the shit out of each other, or should I ring the bell for round three?"

As Felicity finished her rant, everyone glanced at each other, not really sure of what to say. Nobody had seen that coming, not in a million years. Still not quite believing what she'd just seen and heard, Thea turned towards Felicity, her voice rising in pitch, "But they _stole_ stuff from you, from this company. No matter what the reason, stealing is still stealing, Overwat—"

Thea had clamped her lips shut, but not before her slip was noticed. Barbara cut her off in mid word, " _You're_ Overwatch? The hacker that has been chasing Freejack all over the world's systems, and, I might add, very talented and skilled? That's you?" She gave Felicity a strong, appraising look, the wheels in her mind turning rapidly.

The blonde became flustered, and red in the face. Her eyes darted back and forth between them all before settling on Barbara. "Yes, yes, that's me. I'm— wait a minute. How do _you_ know about Overwatch, not even mentioning how you know whether or not I'm talented and skilled, but thank you very much for the compliment. It's nice to know _someone_ appreciates the scope of my contribution to the cause, or crusade, or whatever you want to call it. Nobody takes into account all the cool computer stuff I do, because they don't understand what I'm doing or how difficult it can be, and… and I'm going to let you answer me now." She nervously rubbed the back of her head and averted her eyes from the redhead for a moment.

Dick and Barbara looked at each other, then around the room at the others, who were all trying to figure out just what was happening, and they started laughing, slowly at first, but gaining volume and speed rapidly. Soon, the pair of Gothamites realized that they were being stared at by everyone else in the room.

As she tried to suppress her laughter, Barbara wheeled closer to Felicity, and gave her a crooked smile. "I know about Overwatch, and how talented and skilled you are for one very simple reason," she said, the smile growing a little. "I know because I've seen your work first hand. I know because I'm Oracle."

The sound of silence was deafening. Dick and Barbara were the only people not staring with their mouths somewhat agape. If it hadn't been for the fact that Felicity's nicely shaped bottom had hit the edge of her desk, she'd have fallen out in the floor in very literal shock.

"Wait, wait, wait a minute," she stammered, still not believing what she'd just heard. " _You're_ Oracle? You, Barbara Gordon, you're Oracle? You're the same Oracle that's a legend on the net, the same Oracle that's a super computer whiz kid, er, I mean person, that is _the_ go to person for most of the superhero/vigilante community for information and computer needs?" She was near babbling again, trying to process the information.

Barbara laughed a rich, musical laugh, and leaned an elbow on the arm of her wheelchair. "Yes, that's me," she confirmed, a hint of mischief glinting in her eye. "What's so hard to believe about that? It's not like I need my legs to sit at a computer and find stuff, and do what I do."

Felicity blinked rapidly several times, then the mortified expression returned. "Oh, no, no, no, nothing's hard to believe about that. Nothing! I'm just amazed to be meeting you in person after we worked together to push Freejack out of that system the other night and we worked together so well, I thought we worked together well, did you think we worked together well, I do. Well, we sort of met in person, as much on person as a digital online communication can be in person, it can be personal, but not literally in person because we weren't physically in each other's presence, though, existentially you could argue that we were in each other's presence because we were conversing person to person in real time, not delayed like email or something…" She trailed off, after realizing that she was babbling a little once more.

Oliver was listening intently, looking from one person to the other as they spoke, paying close attention to what was being said. Frowning behind the mask, he lifted a finger towards Barbara, "If you're Oracle, that means that, considering his exceptional talent for acrobatics and the martial arts training he has, and that—"

Dick held up a hand and cut him off in mid sentence. "I know where this is going," he said with a wry smile. "Yes, I'm Nightwing. You're absolutely right… Oliver Queen. And I'm sure you, Thea Queen, and given who these two are, logically that makes the most logical candidate for the man under the helmet to be none other than John Diggle, formerly Sergeant John Diggle of the United States Army, married to Lyla Michaels, current director of ARGUS."

There was another deafening silence in the room as people were too surprised to speak. Finally, Thea, in a characteristically energetic way, gaped at him, then looked at the others. "How did… how the _hell_ do you know who we are? _Seriously?!_ " If the subject matter hadn't been so serious, they might all have had a good laugh at her expression.

Barbara smiled, and shrugged, waving a hand towards Dick. "Oh, come on, it can't be that hard to work out. He was trained by the world's greatest detective. We both were. Deductive reasoning is one of our things."

"It's really very simple," Dick picked up from Barbara's words. "Green Arrow requires a lot of money, and I do mean a _lot_ for the very specialized and custom equipment he, or rather you, and your team uses. You need a good location, with plenty of high powered computer access, and immediate access to cutting edge technology. There are several places, and therefore people, that fit the bill."

He paused, letting that bit of information sink in before going on, "But, since Thea let it slip that Felicity is Overwatch, we know from experience that this tight knit a team aren't strangers. They're very familiar with each other. So with the money in place, location, computer access, and so on, and the fact that Felicity is Overwatch, it's very easy to deduce that Green Arrow must be Oliver Queen. The personal familiarity and relationship with Felicity makes sense, plus Green Arrow is Oliver's height, build, and to be honest, one doesn't survive on an island like Lian Yu for five years, and not learn _something_ about combat and survival."

He paused, not wanting to make his deductions any longer than necessary, but he wanted them to understand that not just anybody would notice these details and make the same discovery. "Then, too, there's the fact that upon her death, Laurel Lance was revealed to be the Black Canary, whom Oliver is also known to be very close to, and his attitude during her memorial service and the dedication of the statue display more than an ex boyfriend shocked to discover his former girlfriend, and fiancé of his deceased best friend, is a costumed crime fighter. Deducing who Speedy and Spartan are after that was a piece of cake. But don't worry. Most people, including talented detectives, wouldn't notice half of this stuff, and it only makes sense if you know for a fact that Felicity is Overwatch."

"Only… only we don't have a relationship anymore. Oliver and me. Not a romantic one, anyway. We're no longer together. We're broke up, which is kind of obvious when you learn that we're no longer together so if we're no longer together then its only logical to assume that we no longer have a romantic relationship…" spoke up Felicity, but she trailed off, realizing that she was babbling again, seeing the hurt and pained expression on Oliver's face, and the stab of pain through her own heart at saying such a thing out loud.

There was another awkward silence lingering in the air until an alarm sounded from Felicity's computer. She rushed to her desk, with Barbara right on her tail, and began tapping keys rapidly, and the images on the screen cycled through several things until there were police camera images displayed. "Oh, my God…" breathed Felicity, not believing her eyes. She looked up at everyone, the look on her face made it ashen and drained looking.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Oliver and Dick together, as one. They glanced at each other, frowning.

Felicity gulped and swallowed heavily, unable to speak. Barbara's face was serious as she also looked up. "Slade's outside SCPD headquarters. Either he's going to break Freejack out of jail, or he's going to kill him. Either way, he has to be stopped. He's already killed several cops."

Oliver glanced at his team, and then to Dick and Barbara. "Felicity, get to the Bunker. Take Barbara with you. Try and keep eyes on him, and try to keep him busy. We'll take Slade head on." He turned towards Dick and gave a grim half smile. "You might want to suit up, if you want to help. It wouldn't be refused by any means."

Dick's smile may have appeared flippant to most people, but it was obvious to Oliver that despite it, he was dead serious. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Oliver nodded, and everyone moved to their respective positions. It was going to be a long night, that much was certain.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN** – I hope everyone's enjoying and I'm trying to update as often as I can. Things are pretty much always going to be crazy, thanks to my health, but I hope to write as often as I can. Thank you for reading!

 **Chapter 7**

Freejack, also known as Larry Warner, criminal hacker by night and low level IT person for Lexcorp by day, heard the commotion outside, the yelling, shots fired, and the general mayhem. It was getting closer, and Freejack was sure that it had to be Deathstroke, coming for him. The only question was if Deathstroke was going to break him out, or kill him. Freejack wasn't overly optimistic about which possibility would turn out to be the correct one.

Fear crept rapidly and coldly up his spine as he frantically searched for a way out, any way out, or a weapon. Any kind of weapon that'd keep Deathstroke busy enough for him to get away, but unfortunately, nothing was coming up in his favor. He kept muttering, "Shit, shit, shit, _shit!"_ to himself as his highly energized search continued. Muffled voices, calling out orders, yelling for people to shoot, came now, along with the rest of the havoc being wreaked outside his window.

 _He's coming to kill me, I_ _ **know**_ _he is! I wasn't able to get to every instance of his information in the world before the Green Arrow and his buddies caught me, so now I'm a liability more than an asset. Shit!_ thought Warner as he finally found a pair of glasses dropped in the confusion, and that had slid under the bars of his cell. They had metal frames, and might be able to pick the lock if he was careful.

With shaking hands, Warner broke the earpieces from the glasses, and reached out with both of them, frantically trying to open the lock on his cell door. From the sounds of things outside, he knew he had to work quickly. It was getting closer.

X

The dark clad figure with the orange and black split faced mask whirled his left elbow, and struck a guard in the throat, which literally flipped him backwards with a shattered larynx that would probably kill him before he even felt the impact of his body upon the concrete. Under the mask, a satisfied smile came to the rough face that lie beneath it. Killing was something he enjoyed, and not only did he enjoy it, he was one of the best at it.

Deathstroke, the Terminator, world class assassin and elite mercenary extraordinaire, punched, kicked, crushed, choked, cut and shot his way through the massive amount of guards and law enforcement officers that came to try to keep him from his objective. They knew of him by reputation, so it amazed the man under the mask that they'd even bother trying to stop him.

Slade Wilson, the man under the mask, had been a mercenary for hire, selling his services to military groups, governments, private individuals, and anyone else that could afford his prices. He was known for being thorough, efficient, and positively ruthless in the execution of his contracts. He and his small band had been major players in tipping the balance of many a war in the Middle East and other locales, favoring whoever had the most money to secure his services.

After many terrible experiences on the island Lian Yu, including being injected with an experimental strain of the Mirakuru drug that Dr. Anthony Ivo had concocted, Slade's blood thirst had only increased. The drug was permanent, unlike the other iterations of the serum, and it had greatly enhanced his abilities, both physical and mental. It had also brought to the fore impulses and drives that one could call madness, and that made him far more dangerous than he already had been.

The man that now stood where Slade Wilson, mercenary, once stood was a man driven by greed, blood thirst, power lust and hate. His enhanced abilities made him a very formidable opponent, and now, the guards and police of Star City were experiencing that hate, blood thirst, power lust and revenge that fueled him first hand.

In a flash of extremely fast reflexes and movements, Slade drew the katana from its scabbard on his back to slice diagonally right to left through the body of an officer he'd caught unaware when coming around a corner, then whirled, slashing horizontally through the neck of an officer that'd rushed up behind him, nearly severing his head along the way. Blood squirted like fountains from both men, but Slade didn't even notice.

Five shots rang out in quick succession, and Slade felt four of them impact his Kevlar woven vest, stopped by the material's mesh. The fifth had struck his mask, made of a powerful polymer composite, and bounced off into the small copse of trees and bushes nearby. None of the slugs so much as made him grunt, but the shot that would have torn through his face angered him. His eyes fixed on the man responsible, and with a motion as quick as a cobra, he had dropped the katana, drawn two knives from his belt, and thrown them with deadly accuracy, each penetrating one of the officer's eyes, and stabbing into his brain. He was dead before he hit the ground.

As gunfire blasted over him, he bent and retrieved his katana and both knives. Though it couldn't be seen, his face held a satisfied smirk as he sought out his next target.

X

The elevator dinged, and opened up onto the secret floor of the building that housed the headquarters for Team Arrow. A study in green and silver, it was more extensive that Barbara imagined it. While certainly not Batman's Batcave, it was a pretty cool base, all the same. _Nowhere near as dark, either. I'm surprised Bruce hasn't gone blind, after all these years of him working in almost complete darkness, with so little light,_ she thought as she moved her chair along the very smooth floor. She was surprised to see ramps leading up to the center, instead of a short series of steps.

Ahead of her, Felicity was urging her forward and up the ramps. In the center of the installation, an impressive setup of more than a few computer systems was laid out, obviously designed to be run by one person.

"It's not much, but its home," said Felicity, as she moved back so Barbara could get closer to the half ring of computers. And it's wheelchair friendly, which has got to be a plus for you, right? I know it was a definite plus for me, and now that I don't need it anymore, I thought it was cool to just keep it, rather than go back to the funky steps again." She realized she was, once more, babbling, so she silenced herself.

Barbara wheeled up to the station and took a good look around, and whistled soft and low. "This is quite the setup you have here," she said in genuine appreciation for the equipment she was seeing. Her eyes moved over all the screens, and fixed on one where it looked like facial recognition software was running. "That's cutting edge. Is that program yours?"

Felicity blinked a couple of times, and looked at the display that Barbara was pointing at. Her hands were wildly wringing, as she was nervous, excited, and not sure of how to deal with the situation. "The facial recognition? Yes, I mean no, its not mine. Well, not entirely. Some of it is, some of it isn't." The lovely blonde cleared her throat, trying to get a handle on herself. "We, uh, um 'borrowed' it from the FBI, don't tell them I told you that, please, and I sort of tinkered with it a little, and reworked the algorithms, set up more dynamic parameters to make recognition more accurate, and gave it's entire operational code an overhaul, so it moves with 88% more speed and 97% more accuracy."

The redhead raised her brows as she regarded the younger woman, and a smile came to her face. "Now _that_ is impressive. You're a genius, Felicity, but I knew that already. So, do you have a place where I can assist from? I'm sure there's going to be a ton of influx that we're going to have to deal with. Encounters with Deathstroke are _never_ simple." She was still smiling that sort of half smile, anticipating working with Felicity's computers, which she was thoroughly impressed by.

The blonde quickly grabbed a chair and wheeled it out of the way, motioning to the space that the chair left, and settled into her own. "Yes, of course. We're riding shotgun with each other. All these are hooked into the same system, and you can hot swap their tasking with simple custom commands. So, with both of us working, we can keep on top of everything with just a couple of keystrokes." Felicity immediately picked up her earpiece and put it in, and slid a small box containing another to Barbara.

Barbara nodded, and put the earpiece in, even as she typed in a few commands, and once more was surprised by how quickly the system responded. No doubt about it, Overwatch had earned her reputation and then some, in Barbara's opinion.

As Barbara slipped her earpiece in, Felicity had been rapidly typing, and after a moment, she could hear Oliver's voice saying, "Overwatch, comms check."

"We read you, loud and clear, GA," Felicity responded, her voice sounding very cheerful, considering what was happening. "What's your status, how are we coming in?"

"System check is five by five, Overwatch," responded John, his voice mildly hollow from the helmet he wore. The two hackers could hear him checking his pistols, making sure they were loaded and ready.

Seconds later, a feminine voice came over, "Sounding good from here." The sound was strong, clear and no hint of interference.

"Nightwing, are you receiving?" asked Barbara as she settled in behind the keyboard. This wasn't the first time she'd done this, not by a long shot, but it was the first time she had done so with a partner actually by her side. It felt good.

"Loud and clear," responded Dick, his voice was serious, but still had that slight devil may care tone about it. It could be roguishly charming, or extremely frustrating, depending on the circumstance.

 _It's a good thing I know him so well,_ thought Barbara as her fingers found the keys. _Otherwise, I'd be yelling at him to get his head in the game. But I know I don't have to tell him. He's been doing this most of his life. He knows what's at stake, the risks, the danger, all of it. Just keep yourself focused on the task at hand, Barbara, and he'll be fine. You know he will._

Aloud, she responded, "Very good, system check is green." She glanced over at Felicity, and for a moment, they shared a smile. "Whenever you're ready, lady and gentlemen."

Felicity nervously laughed, and turned more towards Barbara. "System check green, that's good. You know, since it's Green Arrow, and the condition is green, operation is green, it's green lighted, green for go…and I'm doing it again. Sorry. Excited jitters."

On the other end, Oliver growled, but had a smile on his face the whole time, as he responded, "Overwatch, you _do_ realize we can still hear you, right?"

With a mortified expression, the blonde immediately muted the channel for a moment, and whispered at Barbara, "Don't let Mr. Green Grumpy Pants fool you. I'm actually not so bad at this sort of thing."

Barbara laughed softly, and shook her head. "I won't," she answered in a similar whisper. "Besides, I know you're great at it."

Felicity's mood improved quite a bit as she put the channel back on audible once more. Having Barbara around was going to be fun, she decided.

X

Green Arrow, Nightwing, Spartan and Speedy were just outside the perimeter of the jail, where they'd been holding Freejack until his transfer to Iron Heights prison. The complex spanned pretty much a block, since the facility was the central precinct in Star City. The noise of the chaos that Deathstroke was causing was clearly audible to the four heroes.

Green Arrow nodded towards the complex. "The best way to do this is to split up," he said. "Overwatch and Oracle can guide us around obstacles, or coordinate with us to put us where we need to be if things start going sideways. The first person with eyes on call the rest of us. We take him _together._ If we try to do so individually, he'll take us apart, so we distract and regroup, _then_ take him."

He waited for any comments or questions, and then proceeded, "I'll come in from the north, Spartan, take the west, Speedy the east, and Nightwing, come up from the south. We've all dealt with Deathstroke before, so we all know what he's capable of. Even though he's only one man, he's going to be a handful." He paused and nothing was said, so he nodded, "Let's do it then."

As the plan was laid out, each nodded their understanding, and set off for their entry points. The band of heroes were confident, and sure, but they held no illusions that something couldn't change or go wrong. These sorts of conditions were unpredictable and they all knew they had to be at the top of their game when this went down, or it'd be over before it started.

X

Spartan made his move, coming in from the west, as Oliver had said. His guns were both drawn and at the ready, and his position was low and light as he moved deeper into hostile territory. Along the way, he saw plenty of bodies, most of them dead, but he'd found two that were still alive.

In a quiet voice, he called to the comm unit, "Overwatch, Oracle, I've got two live at the northwest lot, approximately three hundred feet in. They appear to be in really bad shape." Each was bleeding profusely, and moaning softly in pain. They'd each managed to slow down the bleeding, but John knew if they didn't get help soon, they wouldn't need extraction.

"Affirmative," responded Barbara almost instantly. "I'm updating and rerouting the EMTs with Star City General. They should be coming in within five minutes. Overwatch is checking your path for you, Spartan."

"Copy that," answered John with more than a little concern in his voice. He just hoped those EMTs got there quickly. If they didn't, this was going to be a worse massacre than it was already heading towards. Slade Wilson wasn't known for his mercy or his sloppiness. This would get much worse before it got better.

He looked at both men and spoke quietly, "I know you're both in a hell of a lot of pain, but you've got to hang tight. Help is on the way. They'll get you fixed up, and you'll be able to go home to your families in no time."

Both the injured men nodded at him as they winced their way through their pain, but John's mind was momentarily on all the good men lying around them that wouldn't be going home to their families. Not in one piece anyway.

X

From the looks of things, it seemed like almost every cop in the city was converging on the main precinct. The ground was littered with bodies, in almost every range imaginable for injuries, from simply choking, to chests being caved in, to literally being cut or torn to pieces. There was precision in the killing, but also madness.

Oliver tried to brush such thoughts out of his head, but it wasn't coming too easily at all. He was no stranger to death, or killing. He'd done more than his fair share of killing in his lifetime. But there was a huge difference between killing because you felt it was the right and necessary thing to do in order to safeguard your home against the unseen damage that was being done to it from within, and the wanton and meaningless killing that Slade was doing, eliminating every person in his way with less emotion than he'd move a checker from one side of the board to the other. Slade was vicious, brutal, and savage in his destruction of life. However, he was also very precise and incisive in his killing, and that made him even more dangerous.

Green Arrow had an arrow nocked and ready, just in case, as he moved along the darkened paths and roads within the police complex. He wasn't taking any chances. This had already escalated far, far more than it should have, but he knew there wasn't anything he could have done before now. He knew Slade would be coming, and no matter how he went at it, there were going to be casualties, he knew that. It just didn't make it any easier to swallow.

X

Dick moved through the shadows stealthily, completely silent, as he moved closer and closer to the central police precinct. Though he was very familiar with Slade, and the wake of destruction he often left behind, it still affected him to see the scene of carnage that Slade had left in his wake, and was continuing to leave even at that moment.

A sound, like a garbage can lid falling to the ground, caught his attention, just as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Instinctively, he leaped sideways, tucking into a roll and springing back in the direction he'd come, except towards the movement. A shot rang out just as he leaped, and the flash of a muzzle briefly illuminated the darkness.

Dick's feet touched the ground in front of the person shooting, and was shot at again. This time, he managed a flip over the person's head, and turned rapidly, taking the man's throat in his arm, and holding his hand over his mouth, while leaning him back. The figure he held on to was shaking so hard, Dick was surprised he could get a shot off, let alone two.

The man he held was really just a kid, not a day older than twenty two years old. He was also wearing an SCPD uniform, and was obviously a rookie. The kid was trying to scream and was flailing violently to no avail.

Nightwing held his grip a moment longer, and as the young man's movements slowed some, he whispered into the young cop's ear, "It's okay. I'm one of the good guys. I'm going to let go of you now, and let you collect yourself. Do us both a favor and don't shoot me, all right?"

The kid stayed rock still for a long moment, but finally nodded his head, still breathing erratically. Dick slowly released the young cop and moved more into his line of sight. The policeman took a good look at him and lowered his weapon, but his hand was still shaking hard.

"I…I've never seen anything like this. Anything like _him,_ breathed the kid in a ragged voice. "He just swept in and started tearing us to pieces like we were nothing. He's unstoppable. He just keeps going. He got my partner and I…I hid. Like a coward. I hid!" At this point, the kid was becoming hysterical.

Dick grabbed the cop by the shoulders and shook him lightly. "Listen to me," he said in an authoritative, but quiet, voice. "The man doing all this isn't your run of the mill average bad guy. He's hyped up, stronger, faster, and deadlier than anyone of you could be. You were trying to save your life. That's not being a coward. There's no way you could have taken him down directly. You did what you had to in order to survive. You shouldn't feel guilty for surviving."

"But I'm a cop," sobbed the kid, shaking all over then. "I'm supposed to protect people, help people. I'm supposed to stand up to whatever's out there, threatening the city and breaking the law. And I hid, instead of doing that. What kind of cop does that? I don't deserve the badge or uniform."

"You're also just a man, who's clearly outgunned in every way a man can be by a lunatic who doesn't care who he kills, as long as he does what he's trying to do," answered Dick, feeling pangs of sympathy for the young man. "Get ahold of yourself, and get it together. After that, if you still want to try and help, then look for people hiding, or that are hurt but still alive. Help them. I know you deserve that badge and uniform, but it doesn't matter if I know it or not. _You_ have to know it. Now, take care of sweep and rescue. We'll handle the rest."

The young cop stared at him for a long moment, and then nodded. He didn't ask who "we" were, and instead, he started making a circuit, searching for survivors.

X

The noise got louder and louder, and Speedy could actually hear bullets zinging by in close proximity, bouncing off cars and light poles. As she rounded a corner, she could see Deathstroke, wading through a sea of cops like a speedboat on the water. She could feel her blood boiling, seeing the sort of wanton killing that was going on.

She hissed into the comm., "I've got eyes on. He's at the central booking entrance, southeast side." There was a lot of tension in her voice, and the rest of the team could hear it. It spelled trouble, they each knew.

Oliver's voice came through the line, "Speedy, hold position and wait. We're en route. _Do not_ engage him without backup. I mean it." He felt the cold sweat of fear swell up on his skin. Fear for his sister's life, if she went after this maniac alone.

The comm chirped again, this time Nightwing spoke, "Speedy, I'm less than three hundred feet from you. I'll be right there. Do like Green Arrow said, sit tight and we'll be right there."

There was a tense silence for a long moment, and then finally Speedy responded, "I know I'm supposed to sit tight, but he's killing people, with me watching. Every second is more people dead. Screw this. I'm going in. You can help me when you get here."

Over the communications unit, everyone could hear the sound of an arrowhead clanging off something metallic, and Speedy's voice filled with more venom than many of them had heard in some time.

"You want to party, asshole? Then come on, let's party," growled Speedy as she nocked another arrow and let it fly. Over the comm., the sound was like World War III as the sound of battle got a lot closer to home in one step.

" _Speedy!"_ yelled Oliver into the comm as he immediately started running at top speed, dodging obstacles and bodies, racing for the central booking entrance. "Don't be stupid, Speedy! Fall back!"

The rest of the team on the ground sped up as well, racing like crazed people towards Speedy's position. Every second it took them to get there was another second that Speedy could die. They all knew that and it was a race against time. They just hoped Speedy's reflexes and luck held out until then.

X

Barbara and Felicity stared at each other in shock for several seconds. In her head, Felicity knew she shouldn't be too shocked, but Thea wasn't known for her patience, even on the best of days.

As one, the two hackers half whispered, "Oh shit. This is _so_ not good." Never had either of them felt so helpless, and each prayed fervently that the rest of the team could join Speedy in time. Cold sweat was in abundance at that moment.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN** \- Sorry it's been a while in between updates. You've got to love health issues. At any rate, it looks like this fic is going to be a little shorter than I originally anticipated, but that just means I can roll out my next idea for a fic a little sooner than actually planned. I hope everyone has enjoyed it (since this turned out to be the end, a couple of chapters sooner than I expected), and thank you for your readership and following and favoriting. I hope you'll continue to enjoy my work, and please, by all means, please feel free to leave me feedback so I can become a better writer!

 **Chapter 8**

The sounds of battle continued over the com, and that spurred the rest of the team onward. They were no longer looking for Slade. They knew _exactly_ where he was. Now it was a matter of getting to Slade and Speedy before something terrible could happen.

Every second that ticked by was agony for everyone, but especially Oliver, who took off like an emerald shot towards the Central Booking entrance. Felicity imagined him running faster than she'd ever seen him run before. Her heartbeat sounded like a loud, resonating drum, beaten by a rabid, manic monkey. She could literally feel her eardrums pulsing.

"Overwatch, Oracle, I've got dropped bodies all along the northeast side. Make sure there are plenty of ambulances on the way," growled Oliver as he ran, the sounds of him breathing much more elevated than normal. He had the sound of a man on a mission, and indeed he was. He was on a mission to keep his little sister alive and breathing.

Barbara had been tapping keys furiously, and spoke into the mic, "Star City General is on full alert, and they, Star City Memorial, Star City Methodist, and Star City Baptist are coordinating with them." That was a lot of ambulances, she knew, but there were a lot of cops that had converged on the precinct, and there were a lot of bodies, either dead or dying out there.

She stole a glance over at Felicity, who, despite being terrified out of her mind for her friend, was literally typing so fast Barbara couldn't tell one finger from the other. They were simply a flesh colored blur. The blonde may have been jittery and excited before, but now, her friends, her _family,_ were at stake, and she wasn't about to sit by idly and listen to them fall. She was like a completely different person behind that keyboard.

Barbara knew that rush of terror, of adrenaline, of that determination to throw all preconceptions to the wind, and be in the moment, focus on the task at hand, dispel all distractions, and see it through to the end. She'd been in exactly that place more times than she could count, and it seemed very much like Felicity had similar experiences. Not just anyone could do such a thing, many folded under the sheer pressure, but if Felicity's hands and expression were any indication, Overwatch wasn't one of those. She wasn't about to bend, let alone fold.

At first, Barbara couldn't tell what Felicity was up to, the code on her screen was literally flying by that fast. Finally, she managed to look over long enough to let the code filter its way into her mind, and her mind, much like a computer itself in some ways, knew exactly what the blonde was up to.

Felicity keyed in her com without so much as a blink. "Green Arrow, Slade has sabotaged the electronic lockdown and lockout procedures the precinct has in place, but it's obvious he is only rudimentarily experienced with computers and bypass protocols." Schematics, diagnostics, and control software had appeared on Felicity's left most screen, and the blonde was typing as if a life depended on it, which it did.

Oliver sprinted quickly across the grounds, the battling pair just coming into view as he rounded a corner. As his eyes fell on them, he could hear Speedy over the com crying out in pain. Slade had just swung at her head with the katana and missed, but a brutal sidekick had caught her in the side and sent her flying back onto the hood of a squad car, smashing the windshield with her back and shoulders. "Skip the hacker commentary, Overwatch, and give me some good news," he growled into the com.

Felicity's code suddenly flashed green, and there were odd sounds coming across the coms. With a half smile of satisfaction, she spoke rapidly into the mic, "That means that I've just reactivated all of them, and told the precinct's computer that an assault was in progress, so it's setting all its anti incursion measures into play." Her voice was tense, but more with urgency than fear this time. "That means prepare for tear gas coming from key places on the grounds, tri level laser lattice trips for electrical taser strips in the ground, which I've juiced up by three hundred percent by the way, so be careful, and electrified detaining nets made of a high steel/Promethium alloy launching from key points near the building, also juiced up, so don't get caught and watch your step."

"What are we protecting, the Star City First Precinct, or the White House?" growled Spartan across the coms, obviously running across the grounds as well. "When the hell did they install all that high tech hardware?"

Felicity continued typing, with Barbara doing the same, each glancing at the other and giving a quick grin. "After Danny Brickwell and the Huntress each made their not so friendly 'visits' to the precinct a couple of years ago," answered Felicity. She didn't feel so helpless now. Thank God the city council and mayor had the good sense to install preventative measures against incursion at the main precinct after that.

"At least our tax dollars paid for something besides councilmen's Cadillacs and expensive retreats," muttered Spartan, obviously getting closer to the action, just as Speedy's cry rang across the com, and the sharp inhalation of Spartan's breath.

X

The kick was so fast, Thea didn't see it coming. Her bow had been whirling and struck out viciously towards Slade's head, but the kick slammed into her ribs like a Mack truck, and sent both her and her bow flying. The squad car's hood and windshield were hard, the shock of her abrupt stop by them was not only jarring, it felt like it contributed to a few broken ribs, along with that kick.

She hadn't been able to keep the cry of surprise and pain from escaping her lips, which meant that Slade was just that much more satisfied with himself for eliciting it from her lips. Thea's movements were slow, sluggish, and she was disoriented, but cognizant enough to realize there was a very real possibility she might have a severe concussion as well as broken ribs and probably a clavicle.

She felt like she was being poured off the car's hood like a drizzle of caramel onto the ground. Her legs were shaky, and every movement was both pained, and slow, clumsy. The fact she could barely breathe didn't help much either. Spots formed before her eyes as Slade appeared wreathed in a hazy halo of light.

The assassin laughed cruelly, mockingly, as he removed his mask and helmet, holding onto them with his left hand, while whirling the katana slowly with his right. His eyes, one covered by a patch, damaged beyond even his ability to heal, and the other, burning with hatred and contempt, bored into hers as she struggled just to stand up. The kick had been much more potent than she would have guessed. A kick like that from a normal person would have been painful, possibly even cracked or broken ribs, shook her up, but this was like being kicked by a mule riding on the front of a runaway freight train.

"So, Thea Queen," he said smugly, with an arrogant smile Speedy could only half see, but wanted very badly to wipe off his face with her fist. "What is it they call you now? Speedy? Apparently you weren't speedy enough, were you? I'll tell you what, I'll give you a chance to redeem your name. Fall to your knees, and I'll give you a speedy death. Continue to try to stand and fight, and I'll make your death feel like it takes lifetimes to arrive."

With a growl of anger, Speedy mustered her strength, and spit, propelling a particularly gooey wad of phlegm into Slade's face, and she smiled a smug smirk as it slowly dripped down his face. "Eat shit and die, not necessarily in that order, Scarface," she managed to growl out between heavily wheezing breaths. It felt like one of her ribs had punctured her lung. That wasn't exactly what she hoped to get for an early Christmas present.

"Well, well, it seems you've grown some teeth since last we met, girl," Slade said slowly, as he wiped the spittle from his face. "Good. I hate killing someone who isn't worth the trouble to draw my sword or pull the trigger, or even choke the life from them slowly. You've got spirit, Thea. It's a shame you won't see any benefit from it."

He started reaching for her throat, intent on squeezing it, and lifting her from the ground so he could watch the life slip from her eyes as he crushed her larynx, but at that very moment, a very strong, very compressed spout of potent tear gas blasted almost directly into his face from a hidden nozzle directly underneath him. If he'd been wearing his helmet and mask at the time, he would have had that precious second or so to activate the rebreather in his mask. Unfortunately for him, he was barefaced.

Even as he started coughing profusely, from the darkness through the gas whizzed a trio of black bladed disks. Slade managed to snatch one from the air, even coughing with his vision impaired by haze and tears, but it tore into his hand, even through the mesh in his gloves. The other two lodged into his chest through the mesh. They weren't a deadly strike by any means, but they were far from comfortable. Especially considering they were coated by a fast acting neurotoxin, which also served to inflame the wound, he first encountered several years ago, in a battle against Batman. His movements were already starting to become more sluggish, the neurotoxin reacting with the gas to beat down his body's defenses.

At the same time, a brace of green arrows lanced from the darkness, striking him solidly in the side and chest. The heads of them must have been composed of a strong alloy capable of penetrating his mesh armor, because he distinctly felt the bite of them into his flesh, angering him, but further impairing his ability to control his breathing to minimize the effects of the gas.

Immediately after the arrows, three gunshots rang out, two striking him in the hip and thigh, but they were stopped by the mesh. However, the third struck the separation between plates at the knee, exploding through his knee in an in and out wound all the way through. Blood poured from where the bullet struck, and he could feel his leg becoming numb already.

Speedy had been caught by the jet of gas, which had been joined by several others, enough to saturate a generous radius of the police station grounds. She coughed violently, struggling to see through hazy fog and tear flooded vision, so she could see what was happening. With an involuntary gasp of surprise, she was saved from inhaling two lungfuls of gas by a small face mask with an oxygen supple being pushed onto her face. It filtered out the gas, and she raggedly inhaled deeply of the fresh air.

The crack of a composite alloy bow striking armor and flesh rang out across the grounds as Green Arrow swung his bow in a savage attack towards Slade's head, which was narrowly blocked by his forearm. Simultaneously, a dark booted foot connected solidly with the side of Slade's head, sending him reeling directly into the path of an oncoming black gloved fist, directly into the center of his face.

During all this, Speedy recovered her bow, and nocked an arrow, waiting for an opening to let it fly. She normally would have leaped in to join the fight physically, but the trouble she was having breathing, the pain from the broken ribs, and the fact she was coughing up spit frothed with blood made her decide on the discretion of valor.

Green Arrow, Spartan, and Nightwing continued their physical assault on the master assassin, not about to give him a break and a chance to recover himself from the gas and the neurotoxin he was being flooded with. It wouldn't kill him, but it'd disrupt his reflexes and synaptic activity enough that the playing field would be a bit more even.

Blows landed heavily, rapidly and loudly on Slade's person. Finally catching her chance, Speedy let her arrow fly, aimed straight between his eyes. Slade's reflexes, even hampered by the distraction, the gas, and the neurotoxin were still quick enough to allow him to turn swiftly to the side, avoiding the dead on shot, but not fast enough to avoid the razor sharp arrow from slicing a deep furrow along his cheek beneath his eye patch. She immediately drew another arrow, and waited for her next chance, while her chest heaved.

That earned a growl from him, which satisfied her at least a little, as did the smack across the face Oliver delivered with his bow. The strike sent Slade reeling back a step, but didn't do nearly as much as any of them had hoped. Instead, Slade grabbed Oliver's bow on the next attack, and twisted, picking him up off the ground and slinging him hard into John, and they both went down in a tumble, within half an inch of one of the taser strips.

Before Nightwing's next attack, a crushing stomp kick to Slade's knee, could land, Slade's fist shot out like a rocket and caught him under the chin. The force of the strike rattled Dick, but a lifetime of training took over, and he eased himself into the momentum of the attack by executing a tight, neat back flip, landing on his feet, then spring boarding from the ground into a low front flip, ending in a harsh two footed kick in Slade's face.

The mercenary stumbled under the unexpected reprisal, and he growled, spinning and striking all three combatants with vicious blows, sending them sprawling, each nearly landing on a taser strip.

X

Barbara and Felicity watched tensely, having hijacked the station's video surveillance cameras, and they both winced every time one of the guys got hit. They could see bruises already forming on their faces, and imagined they could on their bodies as well.

The fight was cruel, unrelenting and savage. Every time it looked like the team would get an advantage and start pressing, Slade would disintegrate that hope of victory with punishing and rapid blows of reprisal. The girls were surprised any of them could still stand, let alone fight, but the fight raged on. Each time they'd send Slade stumbling, he'd come so very close, yet so very far away from one of the taser strips. The gas had dissipated by that time and they hadn't triggered another jet yet.

Barbara clenched her fists, and then spoke rapidly into the com, "Try to get him closer to the strips. If he steps on one, the fight could be over. See if you can lure him to the strip!" She was worried, not only for Dick, but for all of them. She'd seen the sort of damage Slade was capable of, and he'd already visited quite a bit of it on them as it was.

X

Barbara's urgent advice reached all their ears, which frankly surprised Oliver that their earpieces hadn't fallen out by that time, but her words sparked a typical terse and stressed response from Oliver. "Oracle, what the hell do you think we've been _trying_ to do? Dance a waltz?"

The fight had already gone on for much longer than they expected, much longer than it should have. They were being badly bruised, beaten and exhausted, while Slade was obviously injured, but he fought as if he barely noticed.

"Mr. Green Grumpy Pants didn't mean anything by that, by the way," apologized Felicity, drawing her shoulders up and wincing as she glanced over at Barbara. "He gets like that sometimes when he's out in the field. Not to say he doesn't sometimes get that way when he's here. Though 'sometimes' is a pretty relative word, which essentially means _all_ the time, but not _all_ all the time, but mostly all the time. Sometimes."

"Overwatch, you're not helping!" exclaimed Oliver in exasperation and pain as Slade's backhand sent him flying fifteen feet away from the assassin, leaving him to land roughly on his left shoulder and shoulder blade on the not so soft grass in the station's yard. There was an audible smack as he hit the ground, and a groan as he rolled over, trying to regain his feet quickly, even as Spartan was sent sprawling back, right into him.

Nightwing wasn't faring much better. He tried to take advantage of Oliver and John's press, but Slade had whirled and caught him as well with a hard left dead in the chest, forcing him downwards on the ground on his back. Slade whirled a knife out of nowhere, and stabbed down hard towards his throat, which Nightwing was only barely able to avoid, rolling out of the way, only to be assisted in that direction by Slade's elbow hard to the back of his head.

Seeing stars, he went stumbling forward, barely regaining his footing in time to flip out of the way of another brutal attack. The team continued their assault on the assassin, while Speedy continued to support them by trying her damnedest to turn Slade into a pincushion.

"Something's going to have to give somewhere," yelled Spartan as he once more was flying through the air after delivering a couple of jackhammering blows to Slade's face and body. "Because if not, _we're_ going to be the ones giving, and I don't mean for Christmas!"

The fight had carried Slade closer and closer to a taser strip which also tripped the nets. Felicity saw this and had a rush of inspiration, especially after she noted the power lines.

Felicity's head turned so fast, she was surprised she didn't give herself whiplash. "Oracle, do you see what I see?" Her eyes were wide, with both adrenaline and hope, with a fair sprinkling of fear thrown in for good measure. What she was thinking was a crazy, one in a million long shot of an idea, but it was an idea. That's what they needed right now.

Barbara looked at the screen closely, where the fight had moved to right next to the net and taser strip barricade. "The crossing power lines nearby?" she asked, thinking she knew what Felicity was getting at. In the time it took to see them and ask, she thought she was sure of what was running through Felicity's head.

"Yes, yes, _yes!"_ crowed Felicity excitedly, nodding like a bobble head doll on a car dashboard running through a corn field. "Exactly! _Exactly!"_

She felt an exhilarated flush of excitement as she tried to slow her speech down enough to where she'd be intelligible. "You're very close to a taser strip that also triggers the electronets," she exclaimed, practically jumping up and down. "This is crazy, but it can't be any crazier than Mr. Crazy Pants there is. Well, it's not just his pants that are crazy, he's all manner of crazy, everywhere, not just his pants."

Growling in exasperation, Oliver spoke through clenched teeth, especially since Slade just landed a hard right in the side of his jaw. "Overwatch, I love you… _but would you_ _ **please**_ _get to the point?"_

Felicity visibly flinched, but none of her exuberance had lost its potency. "Okay," she breathed out slowly, "this is the plan. Nightwing, Spartan, you need to push Slade hard towards the building, like super extra ouchie kind of hard. Green Arrow, Speedy, when he's in position, you both have your ascension arrows, right? Each of you shoot one, making sure to go all the way through his lower leg or knee to the ground, and that it latches onto one of the power lines over you. When the arrows hit, his foot drops onto the strip, zap, and down come the nets, double zap! You've got your man, or asshole, or killing machine, or whatever you want to call him, though technically he's E, all of the above. Wow, that was unexpectedly multiple choice there."

Despite the rather scatterbrained delivery, the team all reached the same conclusion: it was a very simple, very brilliant plan. A bit elaborate, but with someone like Slade, you had to be creative, and as simple as possible. A few thousand volts was about as simple as it got.

Without a word, the team set the plan in motion. Nightwing and Spartan set up a pattern of attack that was ruthless and forceful, because anything less wasn't going to stand a chance of working. The sounds of thunderous blows coincided with their images on the screen, as slowly, inexorably, they drove Slade closer and closer to the strip, but not without suffering major bruises, cuts, scrapes and contusions along the way, not to mention being thrown or slammed across half the yard repeatedly.

Finally, he was in position, and Green Arrow nodded to Speedy. As one, they nocked and fired their arrows. They went in a criss cross pattern through the same knee that Spartan had shot earlier, eliciting a very satisfying howl of pain from the mercenary. The other end of the cable of each arrow latched onto and wrapped around one of the power lines. The arrowheads, covered in Slade's blood, struck the strip, piercing it, which immediately caused a burst of electricity that seemed to light Slade up like a Christmas tree. Seconds later, two nets exploded outwards to wrap around Slade, also firing the electric current through his body.

The amount of current he took would have fried an ordinary man, but Slade was far from ordinary. With his armor and hair slightly smoking, he fell to the ground, unconscious, as the current did its job. He was finally down, and out.

Exhausted, the team collapsed next to him, nursing various injuries as they did. After several groans and other pained noised, John grunted, "Next time we get the bright idea to do this, everybody smack everybody else and say _hell_ no, like sounding off for roll call."

"I second that," said Speedy as EMTs rushed across the yard to where the wounded heroes were, as well as cops that came to collect the unconscious and slightly crispy Slade. "I say we take tomorrow off."

Everybody laughed, and agreed, as the EMTs started patching the heroes up. Though exhausted, sore, and feeling drained, they were in good spirits, all considered.

X

A few hours later, the team made it back to the Bunker. In the meantime, Felicity and Barbara had taken the time to get to know each other better, and put together a quick, impromptu victory celebration, consisting of snacks and drinks. They had just toasted the success of the mission when the others entered through the elevator.

"Well done, boys and girls," said Felicity with a grin, taking a long drink of her wine cooler. After the night they'd all had, she felt like she deserved it. "Another night, another bad guy."

"I don't mind the nights," said Thea in a slightly pained voice as she tendered her ribs when she sat down. "But they can keep the bad guys for a week or so. I've only got so many ribs to go around."

Oliver took the top off a bottle of vodka, and poured three drinks, one for himself, one for Dick and one for John. Before each slammed their drinks back, Oliver smiled and said, "Prochnost."

John and Dick echoed the toast, if you could call it that, and swallowed their vodka in one gulp. Oliver promptly poured each another. John picked his glass up, looked at it carefully, and then gave a half smile to Oliver. "You never did tell me what the hell that meant," he said, chuckling.

"It means 'strength,' or 'endurance,'" answered Oliver. "It's something I learned in Russia, from a very good friend, during a stranger part of my life." As he drank the second drink, he seemed pensive, thoughtful.

"Stranger than dressing up like a cyberpunk Robin Hood, fighting bad people with a bow and arrow, and having a hacker, a soldier, and a nightclub owner as your band of merry men, er, I mean merry people?" asked Felicity with a wry smile on her face. "That had to have been a _really_ strange time, then."

The others laughed softly as Oliver shrugged in answer. He spread his hands, turning them palm up. "You'd be surprised at just how strange some parts of my life have been."

They all laughed and talked for a while, just sharing small talk, and each felt like they were bonding into more than people who met under odd circumstances, but became friends on the other side of the deal. Felicity loved that such instances often brought out the best in people, and the experiences you shared with those people were just as good. This was definitely one of those cases.

Finally, Barbara cleared her throat, and glanced around the room at everyone. "I have to apologize about the events that led us here," she said, meeting each one's eyes. "Even though things worked out pretty well, I'm sorry about the initial reason of our visit. We were tracking Freejack's activities, because we knew he was doing a job for Slade, and every time we'd get close, Freejack would divert us.

"Despite how it seems, he's not a bad hacker. It just so happens that Felicity and I are better hackers," she continued. "The algorithm he developed would put any and all information on Slade, or some other client, beyond any conventional method of data recovery. The program your company developed was a revolution in that area. Dick's people at Grayson Enterprises could most likely have duplicated the program, given more time, but we needed the program and needed it now."

Setting his glass down, Dick picked up where Barbara had left off. "If we'd known that Green Arrow and his team were directly involved with the company, we'd have reached out and asked for it's use. Instead, we thought we'd have to deal with a lot of private citizens and red tape. The program wouldn't have been ripped off, it'd been destroyed when it'd been used, and when it finally went public, we'd have acquired it the same way anyone else could."

Barbara turned to look at each in turn, her expression sincere. "We apologize about all of this, and thanks for helping with Slade. It'd have gone down a lot differently without your help."

"Oh, and Felicity?" added Dick as she turned back from her computer. "My offer of a deal between your company and mine was genuine, for the reasons I gave you. It made a good cover story, but it made an even better story, considering it was the truth."

Felicity smiled at him, and actually didn't stumble or otherwise seem extremely distracted when she caught his smile. "The deal is still on then, and it was worth all of it for this little team up to happen." She tapped a couple of keys on the keyboard, and clasped her hands together. "Oh, and you'll all be happy to know that while Freejack managed to escape, being intelligently afraid Slade was there to kill him, he was apprehended and put back in custody at a convenience store, about two blocks from the precinct."

More laughter and small talk ensued, and the feeling of camaraderie grew between all of them. Finally, Oliver smiled, and clapped Dick on the shoulder. "I'm really glad we got to meet," he said. "It's something we'll never forget, that's for sure."

Thea winced, and managed a laugh, "It was fantastic meeting you guys, but there's got to be a better way for us vigilantes to meet than at an Ass Kicking Meet. Some way that's less strenuous and more fun. Though, honestly, kicking Slade's ass was fun," she finished with a laugh.

"It sure was, all the way around," said John, also clapping Dick on the shoulder. "But next time, can we find a better way to say 'hello?' My ass is still recovering from it's first kicking of the night, and I'm not sure which was the worse ass kicking."

That got a round of laughter from everyone. The rest of the night was spent laughing, and just hanging out, being everyday people with everyday lives. By the time Dick and Barbara boarded Dick's jet back to Gotham, a bond of friendship had grown, one they all hoped to further along very soon.


End file.
